FINDLAY, Ohio — Seniors who were displaced after Fox Run of Findlay Assisted Living closed on July 17 have moved on to new homes.
Owners Nick and Whitney McDevitt said they want the community to know that the last year was a trial of hard work to keep the facility open, and they are a small business that still cares.
They said they don't take their losses lightly.
Fox Run emailed a statement to WTOL 11 Monday, which reads, in part:
"Ohio says it's small business friendly, but everything that is happening to Fox Run of Findlay isn't small business friendly! Most small businesses wouldn't have cared enough about their clientele to continue down this long and windy road for as long as we have. And honestly that's the big difference here."
Sixty residents have moved from the facility over the last year, which has lost the facility 80% of its revenue, according to the statement.
After closing for good, the remaining 13 seniors were forced to find new homes in just three days' time.
Mandie Beagle, a spokesperson for Sunrise Senior Living in Findlay, said finding a new home is a task that shouldn't be rushed.
"We offered any kind of help, if they needed us to come do assessments on residents to help them with placement. That's what we ended up doing," Beagle said. "We got to access a couple of different residents there."
Beagle said even though more than seven facilities helped Fox Run's seniors, it doesn't mean they would be a perfect fit.
"It's got to be scary and stressful, so I think that stability is one of the biggest things that they were looking for and I think that they were looking for a place that they think would be their new home," she said.
Sunrise is not currently housing any of the displaced Fox Run residents. Other assisted living facilities in Findlay said they do have former Fox Run residents staying with them, but they declined interviews for the residents' privacy.
The McDevitts said they intend to reopen Fox Run in the future.
The Ohio Department of Health provided WTOL 11 with the following statement regarding the residents and Fox Run's future:
"Based on legal proceedings, Fox Run is no longer a licensed operating facility. Because litigation is ongoing, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) cannot comment about the facility’s future.
The residents have all been relocated. The ODH transition team that traveled to the facility earlier this month to assist will continue to follow up to ensure residents’ further needs are met.
The Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman – which operates within the Ohio Department of Aging (ODA) - also has been assisting the ODH transition team in this effort."
The owners of fox run say they still have hope, and they say the number one priority is making sure Seniors get to live where they want.
The full statement from the Fox Run owners is below:
"This has gone on for over a year and a half. If we were still at the year mark, maybe we would be able to keep pushing on. Our finances became even more tight when the residents were told by the ombudsman in late June, that they had 6-8 weeks to move, and they did not have to pay rent. As a result, we lost some residents and over 80% of our revenue.
We had a brand new team of nurses hired by Jan. 6th, 2022, hiring the last two nurses while we were at the facility that day, and we’ve been in compliance since. We took our staffing issue and turned it into an opportunity, by taking a long look in the mirror. And since then, we’ve been working on ourselves, as a small business owner and as an individuals. Today I can honestly say that our leadership is strong, our focus to give our residents the best quality of life is strong, our family is strong, and our drive to get our residents back home is strong. We are a small business and we’ve done everything that was asked of us by ODH and ODA, in hopes that we can move forward. In this industry, revenue comes from the rent we collect from our residents, and in January 2022 over 60 residents were moved out within the month. These were residents that didn’t want to move, these are residents we comforted and cried with, and these are residents we promised to bring back home.
As of today, we have over 30 Medicaid Waivers waiting to move in. But instead of working together to give these residents the home they are asking for, the state, who are supposed to be an advocate and a voice for these residents, are not allowing them to call Fox Run of Findlay home. We have affidavits from previous residents and new residents wanting and waiting to move in. Some of these residents want to come back home so bad, that they found ways to get help financially so they could move back as private pay, but with the advice of OALA, we decided not to move those residents back so we wouldn’t upset ODH or ODA, after all our goal here has been to continue working with them and to provide a much-needed service to our community with our Medicaid Waiver apartments. We have these apartments ready, and by allowing us to keep providing nursing care and allowing us to move in Waiver resident’s, they would instantly save a small business. This is a business that provides over 30 jobs when we are at full capacity, a business that genuinely cares for the residents that call us home, and a business that is everything to our family of five. All we’ve needed this whole time is the approval from ODH and ODA, the approval we should have received after the 7th draft of our Plan of Correction was approved on Feb. 1, 2022, so we can then move the many residents that are relying on us to get them back home.
We’ve been fully compliant for the last 18 months, and every time the state came to our facility to conduct a complaint survey, the claims made were found to be unsubstantiated, in other words we were fully compliant, we were following all the rules, we were doing everything right. But through the many confusing and mixed-up channels, our story and the truth has been rewritten many times, almost like a horrible game of telephone, except this is OUR real life. Our actions over these last 18 months should matter and make a difference. We do not have the funds to fight the long drawn out battle with the state, no small business does! And to be truthful we haven’t “fought” this whole time. Instead, we’ve tried to get the state to work with us, so we could keep our doors open and allow our residents to live in the home of their choosing. As a small business there should be an avenue so we can share our story and be heard by those who are making the decisions that affect small business owners, their families, and in our case our residents’ lives. If you were to go back and listen to either one of our hearings with ODH and ODA, you would hear a very different story than the one that was typed and delivered to our doorstep. During the hearing there was compassion, empathy, and confusion as to why we were still being punished, but the reports received told a very different story and included hearsay, unproven statements, and referred to events that didn’t take place during the time period we are being punished for.
Ohio says it’s small business friendly, but everything that is happening to Fox Run of Findlay isn’t small business friendly! Most small business wouldn’t have cared enough about their clientele to continue down this long and windy road for as long as we have. And honestly that’s the big difference here, we are a small business that CARES, we are a small business that provides resident’s a home where they will live the quality of life they deserve.
We take what we do very seriously, we’ve given it our all and are about to lose something that has been my passion for over 20 years. When ODH surveyors visited our facility over the past year and a half, we received compliments and were encouraged to keep doing what we are doing, but nothing has happened! We put the facility, the team, and amazing residents first during this whole process.
During the past 1 ½ years, we’ve sold two cars, two national championship rings, my father n laws watch that he gave to my husband when he graduated from law school, several pieces of family jewelry, tools, and so much more, all so we could keep Fox Run of Findlay operating. Every time something needed to be paid, we always found a way to pay it. And to be honest we are pretty sure that is why the power was cut without giving us a notice first.
Most of the residents currently living with us, have a very spacious apartment for assisted living standards, but most residents are also paying under what our basic rent rate is because those are the only funds they have and we never turned any of them away, instead we worked with every one of them to find a way. This is something we didn’t just start doing either, since we bought the facility in 2017, we completely reworked our rate sheet, removing outrageous costs for simple services, and we’ve always found a way to work with our residents.
This past Christmas, our 15 year old son wrote a letter to the Governor that included his Christmas wish. He asked the governor for help so he didn’t have to see “his role models keep struggling” and so his younger sisters could have a good Christmas. That was the hardest thing to read as a parent, but even that didn’t get a response.
Maybe it’s been our foolishly optimistic outlook that has gotten us this far, but I would like to think it’s because we still have hope, we still believe in the good of others and we still believe in America. It’s time to stand up for our seniors and be a true advocate for residents everywhere, after all THEIR voice should be the priority."