Editor’s note: The following excerpts are from an article dated August 7, 2025 by Tamia Fowlkes and Natalie Eilbert in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The full article may be viewed here or here.

Four Wisconsin nursing homes put into receivership, have racked up 384 violations

Four Wisconsin nursing homes with a litany of health care quality concerns have been put in court-ordered receivership as of July 31, the result of dire financial strains.

Until recently, the four homes — Silver Springs Health Care Center in Glendale, Heritage Square Health Care Center in Greenfield, Riverdale Health Care Center in Muscoda and Fort Atkinson Health Care Center in Fort Atkinson — were managed by Bedrock Healthcare.

The Milwaukee-based company manages 10 nursing homes across Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida.

In that time period, state health inspectors cited the four Wisconsin facilities that are entering receivership 384 times for deficiencies, including violations related to the death of one resident and the alleged sexual assault of another, according to CMS data.

Of the citations, 282 were triggered by complaints and the rest were the result of standard health inspections.

The four facilities owe more than $2.6 million dollars in rent and backpay to vendors, according to court records and CMS data.

Judges can order financially distressed nursing homes into receivership and appoint a neutral third party to take over management and file regular reports to the courts. Receivers are typically paid at the same rate as the previous operators, according to state statute.

Attorneys for Bedrock Healthcare argue the court’s decision to order the nursing homes into receivership was hasty and unnecessary. In court filings, they said the company was in negotiation with the state to address owed bed taxes and assessments.

Benny Waknin, Bedrock’s director of operations, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Bedrock was hired to operate the four facilities after they were previously placed into receivership in 2019….

According to Waknin, Bedrock turned down an offer in October 2024 to continue managing the nursing homes. But after the homes were unable to find a new operator, Bedrock continued to operate the facilities for seven more months, “maintaining the high standards of service and compassion that define our approach.”

Waknin also disputed Bedrock’s role, both in terms of debt and the quality of resident care…

Still, the Wisconsin nursing homes have accumulated around $900,000 in federal health or fire safety fines as of January, according to a recent CMS report….

Fort Atkinson Care Center faced some of the most severe complaints among Bedrock-operated facilities over the past year.

The 87-bed center houses around 34 residents daily. From August 2022 to April 2025, the facility accrued more than $270,000 in federal fines due to serious health or fire safety citations.

In January, the facility was cited for “immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety” after a resident with a history of seizures was left without consistent monitoring. Nursing staff failed to establish a seizure care plan and no one on staff requested or picked up prescribed seizure medication, inspectors found.

After several incidents, the resident continued to have seizures and eventually was transferred to the emergency room. The resident entered a coma and died, the inspection report detailed….

Tamia Fowlkes is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at tfowlkes@gannett.com.

Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She welcomes story tips and feedback. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com or view her X (Twitter) profile at @natalie_eilbert.

Editor’s note: The image on the homepage is from the Fort Atkinson Health Care Center website.

Current ratings and survey [inspection] reports for Fort Atkinson Health Care Center are “not available” on the Medicare.gov website. However, this page from ProPublica appears to have current information.

Medicare.gov does have current ratings for other area skilled nursing facilities. The overall rating is on a scale of one to five stars, with five being the highest. Medicare ratings are only one of many factors to consider when choosing a facility.