Residents scramble as care facility in Quinter prepares to close

GOVE COUNTY, Kan. (KWCH) - The decision to close Quinter’s long-term care facility has some upset. It’s happening due to financial issues and it’s a situation that left 29 people having to find somewhere else to live.

For many, the impending closure comes as a surprise.

“I’ve seen so many people who have been greatly hurt and impacted by this closing,” local pastor Chris Thomas said.

Current residents have until June 2 to get out.

“My mother, at age 99, was put into the long-term care facility January 20 after a two-month stint in the hospital. Now, I have to move her again,” said Gove County resident Kathy Koehn.

Some residing in the closing facility aren’t sure how far away they’ll have to move. For Koehn’s mother, that distance, she said, could be “at least 35 miles.”

“Which means I can’t run in and visit her from three miles away, which is what i do now, and sometimes in there three times a day,” Koehn said of how far off her mother may have to go.

Kohen said finding a new home for her mother is only one aspect she has to think about.

“By having to uproot that quickly, we don’t know these places we’re putting them in. We don’t have that confidence in where we are having to stick them,” she said.

Copyright 2023 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email news@kwch.com