Hanover
Chesley described her objective in her new job, which she began July 5, as “rebuilding and restoring Hanover Terrace” to the high status it held when she began work there four decades ago as a freshly minted licensed practical nurse.
The quality of care at the 100-bed Hanover Terrace home declined in recent years, culminating in its designation last November by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a “special focus facility” subject to extra inspections and loss of funding from government insurance programs.
“We want to get off that list as soon as possible,” Chesley said in an interview on Tuesday. Hanover Terrace, which is off Route 10 north of downtown Hanover, is the only New Hampshire nursing home currently listed as a special focus facility.
Chesley’s appointment came about five weeks after a limited liability company controlled by a New York nursing home investor took control at Hanover Terrace.
The previous ownership group had proclaimed Hanover Terrace a “not-for-profit” facility but listed among its members a for-profit company as well as a tax-exempt organization. That nonprofit attracted attention from state regulators by failing to register as a charity with the state Attorney General’s Office.
The new owners, who took over at Hanover Terrace on May 22, have fulfilled a pledge to remove the nonprofit label from the Hanover Terrace sign alongside Lyme Road, apparently by covering the offending phrase with duct tape.
But more substantial problems remain to be addressed, including recent health inspections and performance reports that lowered Hanover Terrace to a one-star, or much below average, rating on the CMS website.
A long-standing contract under which nursing home residents receive care from members of the geriatric team of the community and family medicine department at Dartmouth-Hitchcock remains in effect.
Chesley emphasized the role of D-H doctors in care at Hanover Terrace. “I am very pleased to be at Hanover Terrace and very excited to be working with Dr. (Daniel) Stadler and the new owners as we move Hanover Terrace into the future,” Chesley said in an emailed message.
Stadler, who leads D-H’s geriatric team, said that he and other team members who see patients at Hanover Terrace are hopeful that “new ownership and new local leadership … signifies a real turnaround” at the facility.
For just more than a decade, Chesley was the executive director of a Lebanon nursing home owned by Genesis Healthcare, a for-profit company with a nationwide fleet of more than 500 nursing homes and other care facilities. The 110-bed Lebanon facility currently has a five-star, “much above average,” rating on the CMS Medicare Nursing Home Compare website.
Chesley said she was approached several months ago by Hanover Terrace’s new owners — a limited liability company called Northern Hills Senior Living whose stakeholders include Jonathan Bleier, a New York investor with ownership or management interests in seven other northeastern nursing homes.
“I have met with Mr. Bleier and his leadership staff,” Chesley said. “Based on our meeting I had with him and his commitment to quality care, I was very impressed.”
After that meeting, Chesley agreed to return to a nursing home where she “wore many hats” during a 15-year tenure that began in 1973 and included stints as a social worker, nurse and nursing manager.
Her decision to go back to Hanover Terrace was “not about the money” but instead expressed her commitment to a community where she was born, educated and spent much of her working life, according to Chesley.
Chesley local roots are extensive. She grew up in Etna and at the age of 13 began work as a dietary aide at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, where her mother worked for 44 years. Chesley graduated from Hanover High School and in 1973 earned a licensed professional nurse degree from Claremont Vocational Technical College, which now is known as River Valley Community College.
At Genesis in Lebanon, Chesley led a nursing facility just down the road from New Hampshire’s largest acute care and teaching hospital.
Genesis, a publicly traded company, owns about 30 percent of the nursing home capacity in New Hampshire. Dorothy Ruderman, a registered nurse who is now the executive director of Genesis’ Keene facility, will become the executive director in Lebanon on Aug. 1, according to Cyndi Tubman-Woodman, the local facility’s nursing director.
Genesis currently is awaiting approval from the Green Mountain Care Board for its bid to acquire the Springfield Health and Rehabilitation Center and four other Vermont nursing homes. That would make it the owner of 30 percent of Vermont nursing home capacity and the largest operator in each state.
Chesley also has managed Vermont nursing homes in Berlin and Morrisville, served as president of the Vermont Health Care Association, a trade group, and led Valley Terrace, an assisted living community in White River Junction.
Chesley stressed that Hanover Terrace had “a great team already,” but declined to say what would be the priorities or strategy for turning around the facility. “If we provide excellent quality of care and quality of life for our residents everything else falls into place,” she said. “One day we’ll be a five-star facility.”
Rick Jurgens can be reached at rjurgens@vnews.com or 603-727-3229.