Rochester Regional Health to close Hill Haven

Rochester Regional Health this fall plans to close Hill Haven Rehabilitation and Transitional Care Center following nearly four decades serving the Rochester community.

“Hill Haven has been a staple of our community,” said Jill Graziano, senior vice president of extended care at RRH. “Following months of deliberation and careful consideration, we are announcing the building’s retirement, but not its legacy, which our employees will carry forward. We are committed to keeping 100 percent of Hill Haven’s 350 staff members with positions throughout the health system.”

Several factors influenced the decision to close Hill Haven, officials said in a statement Tuesday, including the shifting needs of the community, as well as growth of in-home and transitional senior living and health care options. Nursing homes across the state and country also are experiencing similar patterns, officials said.

“New choices of care continue to emerge as more people seek alternatives to nursing homes — a trend that has been growing, even before the pandemic, which has impacted admissions,” Graziano said. “As an integrated healthcare delivery system, we understand continuum of care is essential and Rochester Regional is positioned to meet the needs of many Hill Haven residents through our wide range of personalized, comprehensive programs such as long-term care, home care and ElderONE — part of the national Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) network, among others.”

Hill Haven’s services include short-term rehabilitation, skilled nursing care, hospice care and dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease care. Officials said RRH social workers and care managers will have personalized conversations to ensure residents and their families receive the appropriate level of specialized care and support they need as they transition to another facility within the health system, back home or other nursing homes within the community.

Hill Haven is certified for 288 beds, according to the federal Medicare website. The facility has an overall rating of two out of five stars, which is based on a nursing home’s performance in three areas including health inspections, staffing and quality of resident care measures.

Hill Haven ranked above average for its staffing and quality of resident care measures, but in the area of health inspections, the agency received one out of five stars, according to the Medicare website. The low rating was based on a 2019 health inspection at which time the facility received seven citations. Between 2020 and 2021 there were no complaint inspections and two infection control inspections resulted in no citations.

The state Department of Health has approved Rochester Regional Health’s operational closure plan. All Hill Haven employees will receive details of their new job placements within other parts of the integrated health system in the coming days.

“Our employees mean a great deal to our health system and we could not be more proud of them,” said Hill Haven Administrator of Rochester Regional Health Denis Vinnik. “We celebrate their great history of serving residents and the Rochester community. And we look forward to the continuation of their service and unwavering dedication to our health system and the community.”

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