Families Urge State To Keep Phoenix Hacienda HealthCare Open
Families of some residents at Phoenix Hacienda HealthCare want it to stay open.
Hacienda, the intermediate care facility in South Phoenix where an incapacitated woman was raped and gave birth last year, is now at risk of losing its state license and its access to federal Medicaid funding.
State regulators with the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) last month issued a notice to revoke Hacienda’s license, although ADHS says the notice does not mean Hacienda will close. Later in June, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said they would cancel Hacienda’s qualification for Medicaid funding.
But Alan Strobel, whose 30-year-old son, Logan, has lived there for three years, is happy with the care.
“We want to make sure that our loved ones are kept here and with all the safeguards,” Alan Strobel said at a press conference Monday outside of Hacienda. “We are concerned. We want to work through these issues, and if that means more direct involvement by the families, that’s fine. We’re happy to do it.”
Strobel is also a doctor. He said Logan is “a medically fragile young man who travels a narrow path between good health and near death” and that Hacienda saved his son’s life.
The center gained global attention when an incapacitated woman there gave birth. Prosecutors have charged a nurse with sexually assaulting her. He had pled not guilty. Then last month, the facility found maggots near a patient’s incision.
In a statement, the Arizona Department of Health Services said it is working to keep patients in place.
“The Notice of Intent to revoke the Hacienda ICF-IID does not mean that Hacienda must close or that patients must move from their homes,” the statement said. “ADHS is working with Hacienda on an informal settlement conference and a hearing in response to ADHS' Notice of Intent to Revoke. A settlement could involve a provider agreement, which would allow the state to put specific requirements in place that are above and beyond state licensing requirements.”
A spokesman for Hacienda said the company is appealing the state’s Notice of Intent to revoke the license and will also appeal the federal decision on Medicaid funding.
Heidi Reid-Champigny’s brother Robbie Geranen is a resident with three forms of epilepsy and an intellectual disability. He was previously in a state-run intermediate care facility.
“There really [are not] any facilities that can care for Robbie with his medical needs,” she said.
It’s unclear if the roughly six family members at Monday’s press conference were representative of Hacienda HealthCare families as a whole. While they spoke in defense of Perry Petrilli, the current head of the center, another group of families and patients have circulated a petition demanding Petrilli resign.
