Cornerstone, Saint Elizabeth seek merger approval

Bill Rizzini cared for his wife, Lois, at home for as long as he could. As her Alzheimer’s progressed and her needs grew, he sought help from Cornerstone Adult Day Services, which has an Alzheimer’s unit right in Bristol, their home town.
Two or three days a week, Lois Rizzini spent the day at Cornerstone, receiving expert and compassionate care while the family got a little break.
“It was wonderful, and Lois liked it,” Rizzini said. But after about a year and a half, her condition had so deteriorated that caring for her at home wasn’t feasible anymore. Advanced Alzheimer’s requires round-the-clock care, and Rizzini, in his 70s, was exhausted. So Lois Rizzini went into a nursing home, Saint Elizabeth Manor, also in Bristol.
“The biggest advantage was that the programs at Saint Elizabeth’s were the same as at Cornerstone,” Rizzini said. It was a “very emotional” transition for the family, but it was fairly smooth for his wife.
Now a formal business relationship between Cornerstone and the Saint Elizabeth Community – the nursing home’s parent company – is expected to make such transitions even smoother by offering the full spectrum of long-term care options available from a single entity.
This month, Cornerstone became part of Saint Elizabeth, a 126-year-old nonprofit with 425 employees and a $25 million annual operating budget that also owns and runs Saint Elizabeth Home in East Greenwich, Saint Elizabeth Place and Saint Elizabeth Court in Providence.
The deal is subject to state regulatory approval and leaders of both organizations said they are working with the R.I. Department of Health to clear all hurdles, aiming to complete the process by March. Either way, Cornerstone will keep its own board of directors and separate nonprofit entity, said President and CEO Roberta M. Merkle.
But both organizations are also actively collaborating already. In fact, Merkle said, the idea of joining Saint Elizabeth was born out of a joint proposal to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – the application is pending – to build supportive housing for low- and moderate-income seniors on the Cornerstone grounds.
Now Merkle and Steve Horowitz, president and CEO of Saint Elizabeth, are also discussing how the latter’s transportation services might be extended to serve Cornerstone patients, and how they can find “synergies” in the specialized programs they offer.
The deal’s biggest benefit, however, both sides said, is that it will provide a wide range of options to seniors as they age, become frail, and require more care.
Even before this deal, Saint Elizabeth offered an array of choices: from long-term nursing home care, including Alzheimer’s units, to rehabilitation and transitional care, as well as assisted and independent living for low- and moderate-income people.
By adding Cornerstone to the mix, the nonprofit can now also provide services to seniors who still live with their families but need a substantial amount of care.
“Coming together will allow us to create a system that’s seamless, where people can move from one service to the other,” said Merkle. “And it’s also a no-wrong-door approach, where no matter where people come in, we’ll get them to the services they need.”
The deal comes at a time of uncertainty for the long-term care industry in Rhode Island. The global Medicaid waiver approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – and currently under review by the General Assembly – would give the state unprecedented flexibility in how it spends Medicaid dollars. In long-term care, most of the money now goes to nursing home care, but officials have said they want to “rebalance” the system to serve as many elders as possible at home and in the community, such as with adult day services.
In that context, Merkle said, working together is likely to benefit both Cornerstone and Saint Elizabeth, because it fits well with that new approach.
Gail Patry, director of long-term care at Quality Partners of Rhode Island, a national expert in these issues, said the deal is “a very positive thing,” because “it increases options and the ease in obtaining services” for seniors. &#8226