Care Facilities

Integrated Health Services Inc., said yesterday it has completed a deal announced in the spring to lease 43 long-term care facilities around the country and outfit them with skilled medical units.The arrangement involves facilities in the key growth states of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas and will expand the IHS network by 25 percent.The Hunt Valley-based firm is the leading provider of subacute care inside nursing homes for people released early from hospitals who still need skilled medical attention.

A state audit found that the Maryland State Department of Education did not conduct routine but critical inspections of child care facilities and failed to follow up on red flags raised by background checks of staff working for the programs. The audit, released Tuesday by the state's Office of Legislative Audits, found that the department did not perform 31 mandated inspections of child care facilities in the region, primarily in Baltimore and in Prince George's County. The inspections "ensure that child care facilities protect the general health and safety of children under their care," such as supervision and cleanliness, according to the audit.

Integrated Health Services Inc. said yesterday it will sign agreements to lease and run 43 long-term care facilities in 10 states. The expansion would increase the company's nursing home beds by 20 percent and further secure its presence in the fast developing health care markets of Florida and Texas.The facilities, with 5,275 beds, had combined revenues of $134 million last year. The transaction is expected to result in higher earnings this year and next, the company said. Integrated's earnings rose 69 percent to $15.4 million for the year ended Dec. 31 on revenues of $282 million.

The Town of Bel Air, and any other local government with zoning laws on the books, can regulate through those laws where apartment buildings, townhouses, single family houses and assisted care facilities go. Similarly, they can regulate where medical facilities such as doctors offices, professional centers and hospitals are built. Zoning laws were designed to protect land owners from being unreasonably burdened by potentially obnoxious uses of the land on neighboring properties.

Manor Care will begin Monday using the name ManorCare Health Services on all its facilities for the elderly -- now operating under seven names in 28 states -- the company announced yesterday.Leslie Keenan, director of communications, said the change was being made to show that the various facilities, some picked up in acquisitions and operating under old names, are all operated by RTC the same company.Also, she said, Manor Care has been known primarily for nursing homes, and the new name will make it clear that it offers a "continuum of services" including assisted living, post-hospital care and skilled nursing homes.

Firefighters at Station 7 in Columbia rushed to the same nursing home three times during two recent 24-hour shifts. Only one of those 911 calls - for a patient in "respiratory distress" - was a true emergency, crew members said, but firefighters still took all three residents to a hospital by ambulance. "Sometimes we're more of a transportation service [for these facilities] than an emergency service," paramedic firefighter Jeffrey King said. As the population ages, fire departments across the region are faced with a growing demand for ambulance services from long-term care facilities.

Growing up, Angela Showalter was no stranger to the harsh realities that come with being a foster child. The wife of Orioles manager Buck Showalter can remember the times when her family would take care of a couple of foster children from time to time either during the summer or on weekends. As a youth in a traditional family, it was difficult for her to see the hardships foster children endure on a day-to-day basis. "We weren't an actual full-time foster family, but we would pick up kids who were in foster care facilities," Angela Showalter said.

A state audit found that the Maryland State Department of Education did not conduct routine but critical inspections of child care facilities and failed to follow up on red flags raised by background checks of staff working for the programs. The audit, released Tuesday by the state's Office of Legislative Audits, found that the department did not perform 31 mandated inspections of child care facilities in the region, primarily in Baltimore and in Prince George's County. The inspections "ensure that child care facilities protect the general health and safety of children under their care," such as supervision and cleanliness, according to the audit.

Making money from new acquisitions and higher occupancy in its health-care facilities, Manor Care Inc. reported yesterday a 16.1 percent increase in fourth-quarter net income, capping a year in which profit grew by more than 20 percent.The Silver Spring-based health-care and lodging company said quarterly profits were $26.4 million, or 42 cents a share. Revenue for the fourth quarter rose 14.4 percent, from $309.7 million to $354.2 million.For the year that ended May 31, profit grew 20.6 percent, to $94.5 million, or $1.51 a share.

Omega Healthcare Investors Inc., a Hunt Valley real estate investment trust, reported Tuesday a decrease in fourth quarter funds from operations -- a closely watched metric for REITs -- to $24.9 million, or 29 cents per common share, from $26.3 million, or 32 cents per common share, compared to the same period in 2008. The company, which invests in long term care facilities, said net income available to common stockholders fell to $14 million, or 16 cents per common share, on revenues of $49.4 million during the three months ended Dec. 31. Those results compared to net income of $15.6 million, or 19 cents per diluted common share, on revenues of $49.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Growing up, Angela Showalter was no stranger to the harsh realities that come with being a foster child. The wife of Orioles manager Buck Showalter can remember the times when her family would take care of a couple of foster children from time to time either during the summer or on weekends. As a youth in a traditional family, it was difficult for her to see the hardships foster children endure on a day-to-day basis. "We weren't an actual full-time foster family, but we would pick up kids who were in foster care facilities," Angela Showalter said.

On one side of the double white steel doors is Remedi SeniorCare's present: a conventional pharmacy, complete with rows of shelves, hundreds of prescription drug bottles and staffers who fill thousands of orders a day for nursing homes and assisted-living centers. It's adequate, but certainly not cutting-edge. "This is the dinosaur of medication administration," said Michael G. Bronfein, Remedi's chief executive, during a recent tour of the 50,000-square-foot floor. But push through to the other side of the white doors and you see Remedi's future: robots.

Construction already has begun on the new 10-bed inpatient Gilchrist hospice facility in Harmony Hall Assisted Living in the Howard County Health Park. A “demolition party”  - where a wall was ceremoniously broken down within Harmony Hall to be replaced by the facility's entranceway -   was held Oct. 27. “Howard County patients and their families, as well as local government and community leaders, have advocated for many years for an inpatient presence within Howard County,” said Lori Mulligan, director of development and marketing at Gilchrist's Hunt Valley facility.

Child care service provider Bright Horizons plans to open a 20,000-square-foot child care center this fall at Tide Point in Locust Point. It will be the 12th facility in Maryland for the Massachusetts-based company and will serve the community-at-large rather than one specific employer, according to spokesperson Bridget Perry. Bright Horizons has negotiated a 10-year lease to occupy the waterfront space formerly occupied by the Board of Child Care in the Cascade Building at Tide Point, the old Procter & Gamble plant soap factory converted to offices by Struever Bros.

Omega Healthcare Investors Inc., a Hunt Valley real estate investment trust that finances the long-term care industry, has acquired 63 long-term care facilities for $295 million, the company said. Omega acquired facilities in 19 states with a total of 6,607 beds under an option agreement with the seller, affiliates of CapitalSource Inc., for $34 million in cash and the repayment of $261 million in debt. The sale is expected to close in June. Omega had acquired the option to purchase the facilities as part of a previously announced securities purchase agreement with CapitalSource that included the acquisition in December of entities owing 40 facilities.

Omega Healthcare Investors Inc., a Hunt Valley real estate investment trust, reported Tuesday a decrease in fourth quarter funds from operations -- a closely watched metric for REITs -- to $24.9 million, or 29 cents per common share, from $26.3 million, or 32 cents per common share, compared to the same period in 2008. The company, which invests in long term care facilities, said net income available to common stockholders fell to $14 million, or 16 cents per common share, on revenues of $49.4 million during the three months ended Dec. 31. Those results compared to net income of $15.6 million, or 19 cents per diluted common share, on revenues of $49.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2008.

At least two retirement community companies are looking to expand in Anne Arundel County to capitalize on a new law that encourages the construction of "continuing care" facilities. Erickson Retirement Communities of Baltimore and Regency Park in Gambrills are interested in building a combination of independent and assisted-living homes and nursing homes to meet the soaring demand, John S. Pantelides, a consultant for the companies, said yesterday. Other companies also have approached him about developing similar facilities, he said, but he would not disclose their names.

Japan may abandon high-tech TVIn what could signal the end of one of Japan's most ambitious technology projects, a senior telecommunications regulator said yesterday that the government was considering abandoning the nation's high-definition television system.The announcement by Akimasa Egawa, a top official in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, was an admission that the HDTV system that was once a symbol of Japan's industrial prowess had fallen technologically behind developments in the United States.

An affiliate of the National Aquarium plans to start an environmental cleanup of nearly 13 acres along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River this fall and open a public park late next year, but has put on hold more elaborate plans to build an animal care facility. The aquarium's Center for Aquatic Life and Conservation Inc. said today it is seeking a contractor to clean up its contaminated waterfront property in South Baltimore, along Baltimore's lesser-known harbor. The two-phase project will create a park with walking trails, some of which will connect to the Gwynns Falls trail, a 100-foot fishing pier and some wooded areas, said Tim Pula, the aquarium's senior director of capital planning.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, the University of Maryland Medical Center and nearly a dozen other health care and retirement facilities are working to eliminate toxic pesticides from their pest control efforts, a move that environmental advocates say is the first like it in the country. The Maryland Pesticide Network launched the effort in 2005 after conducting a survey of pest-control products and practices in state health care facilities statewide. While the chemicals are legal and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, advocates point to studies showing that 25 of the most commonly used pesticides are harmful to animals and marine life or have links to cancer, birth defects and neurological problems.