AUGUSTA — A 29-bed assisted living center on State Street with a history of residential care violations has filed an intent to close next month.

Capitol City Manor, located at 313 State St. and owned by DLTC Healthcare, filed the voluntary closure intent on Thursday, June 20, with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services Division of Licensing and Certification, according to Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for the department.

“The facility notified the department that it intends to close on or before July 20, 2024, and noted closure will not occur prior to the safe discharge of all residents currently living there,” Hammes said in an email this week.

The closure notice comes following prior violations at the long-term care facility last year that resulted in a mandated corrective plan. State investigations into new allegations of abuse and neglect were launched five months ago and haven’t yet resulted in any new disciplinary action.

A state plan of correction filed on March 25 noted the department received several reports that a resident at the facility was physically and verbally abused on three separate dates in February. Investigative interviews said an unidentified had “manhandled” a resident into a wheelchair and would “pull” another resident down the hallway.

The same employee also reportedly was “muzzling” a resident by putting a hand over the resident’s mouth and telling them to “shut the (expletive) up and go to sleep,” according to the documents. A similar incident was reported involving the same employee in which the staffer grabbed a resident’s shoulders and shook them, while cursing and telling them “go to bed.”

That employee was fired on Feb. 20 — the same day the Division of Licensing and Certification received the abuse reports — and a mandatory staff meeting was held March 15, when all facility employees participated in training and “the policies of the facility that were not followed were discussed in detail to ensure residents are protected from abuse, neglect and exploitation,” according to the documents.

On May 14, “a mandatory staff meeting was held and all staff participated in extensive training on abuse, neglect and exploitation,” according to the state of deficiencies and plan of correction. “DLTC Healthcare requires annual training for all staff members on elder abuse and neglect. Capitol City Manor will continue training all staff members annually to prevent elder abuse, neglect and exploitation.”

The Division of Licensing and Certification also noted the facility allegedly didn’t properly report the incidents, failed to document treatment of a resident and didn’t maintain the minimum resident-to-staff care ratio, among other state violations.

DLTC Healthcare operates 16 locations in Maine that are assisted living facilities licensed by MaineCare. Chad Cloutier, the CEO of DLTC Healthcare, says in a video posted on the company website that MaineCare licensing enables for “continuity of care” so that residents are funded for the assisted living arrangements across the facilities network.

Such facilities, known as nursing homes and assisted living, have been at risk in recent years of downsizing or closing. Two months ago, the Maine Health Care Association, which is the state’s top health care lobbying group, raised concerns about the impact of new federal staffing mandates announced by the Biden administration. As many as two-thirds of Maine’s 80-plus nursing homes would have to hire workers to comply with the mandates, even as they cope with unprecedented staffing shortages, according to the association.

Spectrum News reported earlier this year that 23 Maine nursing homes had closed in the last 10 years, and the existing ones faced the lowest workforce levels in more than a decade.

Cloutier could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday and Wednesday on the closure of Capitol City Manor and the facility violations. In a statement to WMTW’s Channel 8 on Monday, Cloutier said the Augusta facility’s closure was because of financial issues and was not related to the 2024 reports of abuse and neglect.

The 2024 allegations came following prior documented violations in 2023 that included the facility failing to complete an incident report after a resident sustained a fall, among other oversights. Those findings resulted in the Division of Licensing and Certification declaring the facility out of compliance in May 2023 with regulations, leading to the order for a plan of correction. Capitol City Manor instituted the corrective plan and regained substantial compliance with the state of Maine in November 2023.

Hammes, the DHHS spokesperson, noted that the department releases any disciplinary action taken against facilities regulated by the Division of Licensing and Certification upon the conclusion of an investigation.

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