The vast majority of residents impacted by the closure of Lutheran Social Services’ nursing home have found new digs at a nearby facility.

Tom Holt, Lutheran president and CEO, said the last resident was discharged Dec. 28, several days ahead of schedule as outlined in a closure plan by the state Department of Health. He said up to 90% of those who previously resided on Lutheran’s campus in Jamestown went to Heritage Green in Greenhurst.

“It worked out well because it allowed for the residents to all be housed together again there,” Holt told The Post-Journal this week.

A “significant number” of Lutheran’s nursing and rehab staff went to work for Heritage as well.

“What we found out pretty quickly was that residents and staff were being reunited over there at The

Green, which really helped them get settled in what was otherwise a pretty disruptive and emotional experience for both residents and staff and family members,” he said.

In November, Lutheran announced it was closing its nursing home and rehabilitation program, located within its 715 Falconer St. campus in Jamestown. The shuttering impacted 48 residents and more than 100 staff positions.

“There were residents who were here together for many, many years,” Holt said. “We had a couple of residents who had 20-plus years of living in the home for different kinds of reasons.”

With the closure, Holt said Lutheran has about 200 seniors who still reside at Hultquist Place Assisted Living or Edgewood Communities.

Heritage Ministries previously stated its commitment to take in residents displaced due to the closure of Lutheran’s nursing home.

“Our hearts are with Lutheran, its staff and residents,” Heritage CEO Lisa Haglund said in November. “Lutheran is faced with the same challenges we all face in New York state — insufficient reimbursement and excessive regulatory reform without support.

“Heritage is standing by LSS and our hospital system to ensure continuity of care for residents and provide comprehensive support to employees and families. We are dedicated to minimizing disruptions and maintaining the highest quality of care that the community has come to expect.”

Holt said Lutheran utilized the services of the McGuire Group to help with the discharge and transfer of residents to facilities in Greenhurst, Dunkirk and Cattaraugus County. He also thanked Heritage, which took part in a series of job fairs, for bringing on former Lutheran staff members.

Holt said Lutheran still has a “vision going forward” to continue serving the senior community in Jamestown.

“We’ve been on this campus since 1886,” he said. “When you look at the pivots and turns that have taken place over the course of those 130-plus years here, we’ve been a reflection of what the community needs have been over time. We started as an orphanage and then, in the ’30s, got into elder care because that was what the community need was.”

Holt said senior care has evolved in the last decade, noting that fewer people are seeking long-term residency in nursing homes. More seniors, he said, are preferring home settings or shorter stays in rehabilitation programs.

He said the current state of nursing homes in the country isn’t due to COVID-19; however, the pandemic did accelerate trends that were already being seen in the industry.

Further, Holt said, rural facilities like Lutheran have been hit hard due to low Medicaid reimbursement rates and staffing shortages.

“Clearly, recruiting and retaining nurses and clinical staff has been a struggle, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future,” he said. “But it’s even things like technical support people that you need to have to run the IT systems — things that it takes to run the system. Those are the harder positions to try to find in small, rural communities.”

He alluded to “nursing home deserts” across the country. “You used to be able to drive five minutes and get to a nursing home and you’re now driving 30 minutes to get to a nursing home,” he said.

Holt believes Lutheran will continue to “coordinate care for seniors who want to stay as independent as long as they possibly can.”

He said plans are being made to find new uses for the vacant nursing home facility and the equipment inside. Reports that migrants or refugees may be housed on campus are not accurate, he said.