Hearing Set To Close Sweet Brook Nursing Home

The Berkshire Eagle  reports the first hearing related to the Department of Public Health's move to revoke the license of a Williamstown nursing home will take place at the end of the month.

Representatives of Sweet Brook Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, which appealed the agency's move, is scheduled to appear before the Division of Administrative Law Appeals in Malden on July 31, according to a notice on the division's website.

The state moved in April to revoke Sweet Brook's license to operate, noting that the facility is unfit for business. Sweet Brook appealed their decision in May.

Since summer 2017, Sweet Brook has been cited by the DPH and by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, for a list of violations, including the alleged neglect and abuse of residents. In February, the CMS designated Sweet Brook a "Special Focus Facility," making it among fewer than 90 nursing homes across the country with long-standing and recurring issues in quality of care.

The federal agency also placed the facility in a state known as "immediate jeopardy," freezing the ability to admit new patients, twice in the past two years: once Aug. 30, 2017, and again March 8, 2019.