Minnesota health officials have taken temporary control of operations at a Pine Island nursing home amid a series of financial and quality-of-care problems.
The state Department of Health said Monday that it had taken the rare step because financial delinquencies had jeopardized the quality of care at the 70-bed Pine Haven Care Center.
"The evidence indicated a need for immediate action to ensure that residents are safe and continue to receive essential services," Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said.
The state sought an order by Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro to place Pine Haven in receivership after an investigation found that the southeast Minnesota facility was late in paying workers and vendors.
The order described the nursing home as "compromised" and linked its financial problems to an event in May in which a resident with known allergies was fed peanut products and rushed to a hospital after an anaphylactic reaction.
Nursing homes have struggled over the past two years with staffing as well as the challenges of protecting workers and residents from coronavirus infections. Gov. Tim Walz mobilized hundreds of National Guard members to shore up staffing in nursing homes hit with COVID-19 outbreaks or workers leaving the profession.
The state has taken over nursing homes seven times in the past 15 years, including two during the pandemic. Last fall, it took charge of Twin City Gardens in Minneapolis before the struggling nursing home shut down in January.
Nursing homes had unique challenges before the pandemic, depending on their buildings, locations, employment bases and patient mix, said Maria King, director of the health department's regulation division. In the two years before the pandemic, Pine Haven had become much more dependent on temporary staffing agencies than its own full-time workers.