Private operator to lose contract to manage troubled nursing home

GEO Group also loses contract to oversee construction of replacement facility

By Trip Jennings 06/16/2008 | 2 Comments

GEO Group Inc., a well-connected firm that provides residential and correctional services, said Monday its contract with the New Mexico Department of Health to manage the troubled Fort Bayard Medical Center will end June 30.

GEO of Florida also will no longer oversee the construction of a $30 million facility to replace Fort Bayard in Silver City, Deborah Busemeyer of the New Mexico Department of Health said Monday. The state will take over that task, Busemeyer said.

"We have decided to discontinue the management services contract at the Fort Bayard Medical Center by mutual agreement," said George C. Zoley, chairman, chief executive and GEO founder, in a statement. "The Fort Bayard Medical Center is one of a few state nursing homes in the country, a market segment which we will no longer pursue."

Fort Bayard has been ranked as one of the worst nursing homes in the nation and was threatened with loss of decertification earlier this year.

Busemeyer said Monday that Pinon Management of Colorado will take over management of Fort Bayard on July 1. "We're still finalizing the contract," Busemeyer said.

New Mexico's Department of Health contracted GEO Care to manage Fort Bayard in November 2005 and part of that contract included overseeing the construction of the replacement facility, Busemeyer and GEO spokesman Pablo Paez said Monday.

"It's one contract that encompassed both," Paez said. Recently, the state health agency had gone to a month-to-month contract with GEO, Busemeyer said.

The contract at Fort Bayard generated about $3.5 million in annual operating revenues for GEO, the company said in a release Monday, meaning that is how much revenue it will lose by losing the contract, Paez said. The company said in its release that the contract's discontinuation won't hurt GEO's financial performance or affect prior guidance.

GEO Group is a high profile state contractor in New Mexico. GEO also operates two correctional facilities in New Mexico -- the Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs and the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rose, according to the New Mexico Department of Corrections website.

GEO has not been shy about contributing to political campaigns, giving tens of thousands of dollars to candidates for political office in recent years, including Gov. Bill Richardson.

Paez said the loss of the Fort Bayard contract does not affect its agreement with the New Mexico Department of Corrections.

Comments:

owinurame
Posted 06/16/2008 20:24 with

The problems at Fort Bayard are extreme examples of the typical mismanagement of virtually ALL the facilities in the Department of Health. The turnover of workers at some facilities approaches 100% each year. The legislator should take another – closer – look.