‘Our Hands Were Tied,’ Says Health Officer On Princeton Care Center Closure

PRINCETON, NJ — Princeton Care Center closed suddenly on Sept. 1, leaving many families scrambling to make arrangements to relocate the residents.

But local officials could do very little to prevent the fiasco, Deputy Administrator and Director of the municipality’s health department, Jeff Grosser explained to Council on Monday.

“Our hands were certainly tied as a local municipality because we do not license this facility for long term care,” Grosser explained. “And we have no authority to say you must move these people out. The only authority I have as health officer is if there's an infectious disease outbreak.”

Grosser informed officials that Princeton does have an after action plan in place and will be meeting Sen. Andrew Zwicker on Wednesday to discuss what went wrong. The meeting with Zwicker is to discuss what went wrong from the state vantage point and to ensure such an incident never happens again, Grosser said.

According to officials from the state Department of Health, the facility shut down due to financial issues. Residents and families were given only a few hours of notice before the relocation.

Mayor Mark Freda had criticized the state Department of Health for failing to inform families beforehand and for not putting a relocation plan in place ahead of time.

Grosser told Council that the Municipality was informed by the state that they would not be able to meet payroll on the day of evacuation.

“What had happened throughout the course of the month was a series of notifications from the state health department on their attempt to try to assist with financial hardship that the organization and facility was going through,” Grosser said. “Although we made it abundantly clear through a series of meetings that transportation would certainly be an issue and obviously evacuation, the last thing we would want would be a last minute notification.”

The facility then went into emergency evacuation, trying to get 72 residents out of the facility within the span of eight hours, Grosser said.

He noted that Princeton was not asked for any site support or transportation. Yet, local officials including the police and fire departments, health department staff, and local administrators were on site to help residents and families.

“I was really filled with a lot of emotions with regards to our local response,” Grosser said.

He explained that the Municipality could do very little to provide transportation during the evacuation.

Currently the local health department is assisting families by helping them get in touch with the New Jersey Long Term Care Ombudsman and the DOH.

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