Sharon Heights Care and Rehab will close this Friday, May 19, after serving hundreds of area residents for decades at its Menlo Park facility, located at 1185 Monte Rosa Drive and Sand Hill Road.
Administrator and director Leslie Finnell told the Almanac last week that the facility would close, but said she was not at liberty to provide details. She said she might have more information about the facility’s future toward the end of the month.
Ms. Finnell said Sharon Heights has continued providing short-term, post-acute rehabilitation care for patients, but had stopped admitting patients for long-term care last fall.
The California Department of Health Services and Tippy Irwin, director of Ombudsman Services of San Mateo County, confirmed the May 19 closing.
A spokesman from the state department’s office of public affairs said yesterday that the department had received the written report required by law. There have been no long-term residents at the facility since April 24. Only two short-term patients were receiving rehabilitation services as of May 15, the spokesman said.
Ms. Irwin said she had received a phone call from Ms. Finnell informing her of the closing date, but had not received the written notification required by law to inform the ombudsman about a facility’s plan for closure.
“Transfer trauma is a big issue when a facility is transferring its frail elderly to another location,” said Ms. Irwin. That’s why notifying the ombudsman service and the California Department of Health Services about the facility’s transfer plan for patients is so important, she said.
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