Long before the announcement last month that Rosa Coplon nursing home would close, leadership at Weinberg Campus had sent multiple letters to the state Health Department that warned of the Amherst nonprofit’s delicate financial state. An April 2022 letter to then-state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett requested emergency funding because Weinberg was “running out of cash.
” The situation was even more dire when Weinberg leaders followed up in August 2023 with Bassett’s successor, Dr. James McDonald. “We need cash immediately or we will not survive,” wrote then-Weinberg Board Chair Kenneth Rogers and President and CEO Robert Mayer.
Only 25 residents remained at Rosa Coplon Living Center as of Friday. While those residents await transfers to other nursing homes, a last-second application is in the works for a nonprofit alliance to take over Rosa Coplon, though that bid faces an uphill climb. In addition, the rest of the campus, which includes assisted-living facilities, senior apartments and other services, faces an uncertain future, with questions around how long the cash-strapped nonprofit can keep going.
In fact, Weinberg’s mortgage lender on Wednesday sued the campus for $17.2 million plus interest, after the nonprofit failed to make its monthly payments for the last couple of years. None of this should be a surprise to the Health Department, said Rogers, who resigned last month.
“It’s not like we weren’t letting the Health Department know exactly wher.
