East Orange Nursing Home Still Among 'Lowest-Rated' In NJ: Watchdog

EAST ORANGE, NJ — A nursing home in Essex County is still among the “lowest-rated long-term care facilities” participating in New Jersey’s Medicaid program, a new report from the comptroller’s office says.

Grove Park Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in East Orange was one of 12 New Jersey facilities cited in a report from the Office of the State Comptroller last week. The report was done as a follow-up to a previous probe done in 2022.

“We raised the alarm a year ago, but the state has chosen to maintain the status quo,” acting comptroller Kevin Walsh alleged.

“Enough is enough,” Walsh said. “We shouldn’t use our Medicaid dollars to fund poor quality care year after year. The state has the power to prevent this waste – it should use it.”

Together, the 12 nursing homes cited in this year’s report receive more than $100 million every year in New Jersey Medicaid funds, even though several of them have “provided poor care” to residents for almost a decade, the comptroller’s office charged. All 12 of the nursing homes have consistently received one of five stars, the lowest possible rating from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

In addition to Grove Park Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, other facilities named to the 2023 list are located in Bridgeton, Cherry Hill, Deptford, Hamilton, Haskell, Hope, Maple Shade, Oxford and Williamstown.

See the full comptroller report and learn about its methodology here.

GROVE PARK HEALTHCARE

Located at 101 North Grove Street in East Orange, Grove Park Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center received $49.38 million in New Jersey Medicaid payments between 2017 and 2022, according to the comptroller report.

Formerly known as New Grove Manor, the 185-bed, for-profit nursing home currently has a one-star overall rating with the CMS. The rating includes:

• Health Inspections – 1 star (much below average)
• Staffing – 2 stars (below average)
• Quality Measures – 4 stars (above average)

The most recent health inspection of the facility took place on Dec. 18, 2022. View the full inspection report online here.

The nursing home has been given four federal fines in the past three years: $9,773 on Sept. 15, 2020; $14,508 on Dec. 18, 2020; $9,750 on Feb. 25, 2021; $16,845 on Jan. 27, 2022.

It has seen one payment denial by Medicare in the past three years, which took place in January 2022.

Grove Park Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center is among four nursing homes that have graduated from the Special Focus Facility (SFF) program within the past three years. Under the federal program, the New Jersey Department of Health is required to perform onsite inspections every six months and use progressive enforcement until the facility “graduates” from the program or is terminated from Medicaid.

Grove Park graduated from the SFF program in March 2020 after 24 months. However, the nursing home – and others that entered the program – continue to rack up one-star CMS ratings.

“The failure of these nursing homes to improve their performance indicates that the SFF program is not working as intended,” the state comptroller’s office contended. “Despite pouring state resources into assisting these facilities, the SFF program failed to improve the quality of these nursing homes.”

Patch reached out to Grove Park Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center for comment on the comptroller’s latest report. We will update this article with any reply we receive.

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