Assisted living center is closing

The Hotel Cathlamet’s assisted living center will close its doors at the end of October.

The families of the hotel residents received letters at the end of September notifying them they had to find new homes for their parents and relatives by the end of the month.

The closure affected 19 people, most senior citizens, in residence at the hotel. Three of them were scheduled to relocate last Friday morning.

“We moved my wife’s mother out last week,” said Maurice Mooers. “The real problem was that I think they were trying to run the hotel like a rest home and they couldn’t make it work for what they charged.”

“The main reason we decided to close was the hotel never made a profit,” said owner Sandy Wirkkala. “You can only lose money for so long before you go to plan B.”

Plan B was to try and sell the hotel as a fully functioning assisted living facility.

“The corporations we contacted said we were too small, and private individuals said were too big,” she said.

Wahkiakum School Superintendent Bob Garrett’s mother lived at the hotel. “We moved her yesterday,” said Garrett last Friday. “It was unfortunate for our family because we had to move her north near Aberdeen, which makes it a little harder to visit.”

But Garrett said he understood the reason for the closure and was grateful for the quality of care his mother had received while she lived at the hotel.

“I really do appreciate how the staff and Sandy treated my mother,” said Garrett. "I realize Sandy couldn’t continue to lose money."

The hotel’s excellent quality of service and care may be a factor in the closure. Several of the residents' family members said that the hotel service was far above that of a normal assisted living facility.

Wirkkala said the hotel had an excellent staff and caregivers who went out of their way to make the place a home for the residents.

“It’s been a real stressful time for both staff and residents,” she said.

There are a myriad of reasons why senior living centers like the Hotel Cathlamet are closing around the state. In 2009 Medicaid cut 12 percent from its senior care assisted living program, nationally.

At the state level, cuts to the federally subsidized Medicare program further lowered what the state could pay facilities to care for seniors.

Typically, assisted living facilities are different than nursing homes. Assisted living facilities are places elders live in a supervised community environment, with some personal care services available.

Besides providing living quarters, the focus is providing meals and social activities that create a healthy social environment and prevent social isolation.

Assisted living facilities also usually provide basic health care and the residents are usually responsible for their own well-being 24 hours a day.

The average cost to care for a parent or relative in an assisted living facility can run $2,500 - $5,500 monthly; a full-fledged nursing home can be double that amount.

“My mother had Alzheimer’s,” said Garrett. “She needed care 24 hours a day. The hotel staff gave her that and more and that kind of care is expensive.”

The Hotel Cathlamet employed about 15 full-time staff to care for residents.

Besides the day-to-day cost of the operation Wirkkala had to comply with a myriad of complex state and federal regulations and requirements.

“Sandy Wirkkala gave us as much help as she could to relocate my mom,” Garrett said. “She sent us a list of retirement homes with vacancies and then called to make sure we received the information and to ask if there was anything else she could do.”

On Monday, Wirkkala told The Eagle that all of the hotel’s residents had found new homes. She said some had moved to the local nursing home while others had moved closer to their families.

June Mattson, 95, and brother Dan Fowser lived in the hotel for a total of 10 and a half years. They both moved out Saturday, and as June watched the last of her brother’s things loaded into the elevator she said, “I have loved living here all these years. I really will miss the place and the staff.”

The hotel remains for sale, but Wirkkala said she plans to reopen it as a public hotel. “We’ve got to sustain it somehow,” she said.

The hotel has been in business as an assisted living center for 12 years. Owners are Kevin and Sandy Wirkkala and Loren and Deborah Wirkkala.