Home Care In Waterbury, CT

Bright colors, good vibes and happiness are what Mamajuana Café is looking to provide to customers as it opened its first Connecticut location featuring Latino cuisine.

The restaurant, located at 950 Wolcott St. in Waterbury, had its a soft opening on Aug. 23 and will celebrate its grand opening sometime next month.

The Waterbury location is the 10th Mamajuana Café, that includes four locations in New York, three in New Jersey and two in Florida. The first location opened in 2006 in Inwood, New York.

Waterbury resident Claudio Perez owns the Connecticut location. The 50-year-old is of Dominican descent and grew up in Brooklyn, New York before moving to Waterbury 13 years ago. Mamajuana Café is the first restaurant he has owned.

Another Waterbury resident, Jhonatan Cruz, is the Mamajuana Café manager. He is of Colombian descent.

“Our food is a Latin fusion with many kinds of foods including, pastas, steaks and sushi,” Perez said. “We have Dominican food and Latin food including food from Europe.”

Perez developed a love for preparing food at a young age cooking for friends and family. He also has a background in the meat and fish industry and understands the quality of products the restaurant’s chef uses and chooses it himself.

Perez said the food is the main attraction, and customers that would normally get similar food in New York have been stopping in his restaurant. He added that it’s been a diverse group of customers that have come in and has attracted younger customers to senior citizens. Perez said some customers have already stopped five times in the first week.

Sauces are made from scratch with recipes from the Dominican Republic to Colombia and feature flavors from Caribbean Hispanic and South American culinary traditions.

Perez said two of its signature dishes are mofongo and yucafongo. Mofongo is plantain pressed with garlic and fresh herbs, choice of chicken, shrimp and lobster, churrasco or vegetable. Mofongo and yucafongo dishes both range between $32-$38 a meal.

Also on the soft opening menu is Puerquito MMJ ($32), a Caribbean-style slow cooked roasted pork in house-made marinade, topped with fried leeks, a side of chimichurri sauce and demi-glaze accompanied by rice and pigeon peas and sweet plantains.

There is also penne vodka ($18) with chicken ($20) or shrimp ($24); pargo relleno ($36), which is a crispy whole Mediterranean red snapper filled with seafood, white rice and creole sauce; seafood casserole ($35) featuring shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops, lobster, cooked in a salsa criolla with fine herbs; oxtail fettuccine ($32), which is deboned oxtail pieces mixed in fettuccine, spinach and burrata topped with handmade roast; half chicken ($21), an organic roasted half chicken served with roasted potatoes; and stuffed salmon ($30), which is crabmeat-stuffed salmon in a dill, garlic and heavy cream sauce accompanied with butterfly pea rice and assorted vegetables.

Other entree options are chillo boca chica ($30), fresh fried red snapper, tostones and green salad; rabo encendido ($26), a Dominican oxtail stew with rice and pigeon peas and crispy sweet plantains; and pollo criollo ($24), a chicken breast, sweet plantains, white rice, beans, creole sauce.

During the soft opening, the Mamajuana Café menu features only a portion of what the menu will be during the grand opening.

There is a wide array of Dominican Republic-themed house cocktails on the drink menu. Mamajuana is a Dominican Republic-born drink that is rum-based island drink. The flavor is drawn from a recipe of exotic roots, herbs and spices from the Dominican Republic.

“It’s a natural tropical drink from sugar cane,” Perez said. “Rum is the main alcohol, and we use a different kind of tree root.”

There is a large dining room as well as lounge area to drink cocktails and a bar area as well. Many of the decorations are nature- and floral-based and jungle-related. There is also a large screen showing various scenes of the Dominican Republic. The architecture is based on the colonial city of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

“The concept of the restaurant is a happy life,” Cruz said. “Happiness and good vibes, that’s the most important thing. Concept of our restaurant is to make people happy. It’s about service, environment and good vibes.”

The restaurant currently seats 200 patrons and, when the patio opens next year, it will seat a maximum of 302.

During the soft opening, the restaurant is open from 3 p.m. to midnight.

“The soft opening has been really good,” Perez said. “The weekends have been really busy. And eventually we will have entertainment with live music or an artist playing an instrument or a local DJ. When we have our full opening, and on days when the restaurant is full, we will bring in popular bands within the Latino community.”

In a few weeks, the restaurant plans to open early on Saturdays and Sundays for a brunch menu.

The hours after the grand opening will be 11:30 a.m. to midnight Sundays through Thursdays and 11:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Perez said he hopes to expand throughout the state but feels the restaurant fills a void in Waterbury.

“I think Waterbury needs a place like this and that’s one of the reasons why we chose this location,” Perez said. “We think people are going to like what we offer here with the Mamajuana-style ambiance.”

Originally Published: October 7, 2024 at 5:45 a.m.

An embattled Waterbury nursing home, whose Medicare and Medicaid funding recently was terminated, will remain open for an additional month as residents are being relocated to other facilities.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had notified Abbott Terrace in August that it would lose funding beginning Sept. 10 for any new patients and within 30 days for all residents. The move by federal officials effectively closes the 205-bed facility because most of the residents are Medicaid or Medicare recipients and not private payers.

Last week, Abbott Terrace was issued a new termination date of Oct. 9. The facility now plans to move all of its 166 residents out of the building by Nov. 8, said Savannah Ragali, a spokeswoman for Athena Health Care Systems, which owns the facility.

“During this incredibly challenging time, our focus remains steadfast on our residents, their families, and our employees,” she said. “We are committed to working closely with each resident and their responsible parties to help them find suitable care at other facilities. We are equally devoted to supporting our staff — many of whom have served this community for decades — with employment opportunities, either within Athena’s network or locally.”

[RELATED: Abbott Terrace Health Center lost its federal funding. What’s going on?]

Abbott Terrace employs 287 workers, “including 11 team members who have been with us for 30 to 38 years,” Ragali said.

In their letter to Abbott Terrace managers, CMS officials noted that involuntary termination of a provider agreement is generally the last resort after all other attempts to remedy deficiencies at a nursing home are exhausted.

State Department of Public Health officials made several visits to Abbott Terrace over the first six months of this year. The inspections revealed staff shortages, particularly among nurses, large holes in the tile floors and at least one incident where an employee told a resident with incontinence problems “they could smell them in the hallway.”

Ragali said the health department had mandated updates to the building, particularly the flooring, and Athena invested $200,000 in upgrading floors in “specified areas.”

“The facility also earmarked additional dollars for further renovations to benefit the quality of life and life safety of the residents at Abbott Terrace,” Ragali said. She did not specify an amount.

The health department identified further areas needing renovation, including two doors that Ragali said were upgraded.

“Our team did everything possible in the past several weeks to address the physical plant concerns identified by DPH,” she said.

[RELATED: Athena nursing home in Waterbury loses federal funding]

Athena owns 14 nursing homes in Connecticut, including Abbott Terrace.

The state Long-Term Care Ombudsman’s office is helping residents find alternative facilities and aiding in their transition.

“The Office of the State Ombudsman is concerned whenever there is a nursing home closure because it can leave residents and their families facing uncertainty and distress,” Mairead Painter, the ombudsman, said. “Closures raise significant issues regarding the continuity of care, displacement of residents, and the overall well-being of those affected.

“We know that the sudden closure of homes disrupts the stability and security that residents depend on, potentially leading to adverse health effects and emotional distress, but we hope that this outweighs the risks associated with a facility that is not able to offer the appropriate care residents deserve.”

The developer of a proposed 650,000-square-foot Amazon distribution warehouse on 183 acres at the Waterbury/Naugatuck Industrial Park has been granted another extension by Waterbury officials to complete the sale and close on the property.

Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski approved a nine-month extension of the deadline, giving the developer until next August to conduct due diligence in completing the deal. The extension comes after a small but vocal group of Naugatuck and Waterbury residents spoke out against the plans for the massive logistics Amazon facility to be built by the Bluewater Property Group, headquartered in New York City and suburban Philadelphia.

The intial presentation of the plans occurred in early September.

Thomas Hyde, chief executive officer of Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corp. which is representing the two communities in the process, said Wednesday that the public shouldn't read anything into Bluewater's decision to seek another extension for the closing date.

"This is a big project and it takes time to work through everything," Hyde said. "At this point, the project needs approval from the wetlands commission in Naugatuck and the state Department of Transportation because of the amount of traffic this facility is expected to generate."

He said developers will sometimes purchase a property where a large facility is being planned, making the closing of the sale contingent on obtaining the necessary state and local land use approvals. In some cases, a developer will purchase the property first and then seek the necessary approvals, Hyde said.

"In some ways doing it this way is better for the communities involved," he said of the extension on the closing date. "In cases where the purchase of the property comes first, if the project falls through, then you worry about the property's owner just sitting on the property and doing nothing with it."

Pernerewski said Wednesday that city officials have remained in regular contact with Bluewater executives and "the conversations that have had with them have all been positive."

"When they sought the first extension last October, we were a little concerned because in a lot of other places they were building, they were scrapping their plans," Pernerewski said. "But they've made a lot of progress on this project since then and we're very confident this will continue to move forward. This is a very difficult site that they've chosen, especially in terms of the blasting they need to do."

Officials with Bluewater were not immediately available for comment on receiving another extension for closing on the property. A hearing on the project has been scheduled for Oct. 3 in Naugatuck.

Bluewater owns a number of logistics facilities in the Northeast, including one in Johnston, Rhode Island, and another under construction in Charlton, Massachusetts, not far from the Connecticut line and Interstate 84.

The developer's plans were first made public in January 2022.

Concerns raised by residents of the two communities at the informational meeting in early September included truck and employee vehicles snarling traffic at certain points during the day; damage to nearby structures from blasting rock to level the site during construction; any residual impact on nearby property values in having a busy industrial facility in close proximity; and the facility's overall environmental footprint.

Includes prior reporting by Liese Klein, Paul Schott and Alex Soule.

This story is part of CT Mirror Explains, an ongoing effort to distill our wide-ranging reporting into a "what you need to know" format and provide practical information to our readers.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of CT Mirror’s Spanish-language news coverage developed in partnership with Identidad Latina Multimedia.

Lea este artículo en español.

Athena Health Care Systems has lost federal Medicare funding for nearly 200 residents living at the Abbott Terrace Health Center in Waterbury, causing the company to prepare for the closure of the nursing home.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified state officials and Athena that because of the “facility’s failure to meet Medicare’s basic health and safety requirements,” funding would be stopped as of Sept. 10 for any new patients and within 30 days for all patients.

The unprecedented step by federal officials in effect will close the 205-bed facility because most of its residents are Medicaid or Medicare recipients and not private payers. It comes amid growing financial problems and legislators’ concerns about patient care at Athena facilities.

Here’s what to know.

Department of Public Health officials made several visits to Abbott Terrace over the first six months of this year, during which concerns were raised about the facility itself and patient care.

The inspections showed staff shortages, particularly for nurses, large holes in the tile floors and at least one incident where an employee told a resident with incontinence problems “they could smell them in the hallway.”

[RELATED: Athena nursing home in Waterbury loses federal funding]

The federal Medicare website lists a 1-star rating for Abbott Terrace, with “much below average” health inspections and “below average” quality measures.

A spokeswoman for the company said the Department of Public Health had mandated updates to the building, particularly the flooring, and Athena invested $200,000 in renovating floors.

The company had also “earmarked additional dollars” for further upgrades, the spokeswoman, Savannah Ragali, said. She did not specify an amount.

“Our team did everything possible in the past several weeks to address the physical plant concerns identified by DPH,” Ragali said. “We have invested significant financial resources in returning our facility to compliance by upgrading floors, doors and other identified facility infrastructure. We believed that the identified issues had been successfully resolved.”

Following reports that CMS had granted a stay to Abbott Terrace, Ragali said the nursing home “has not been notified of any change to its status” and continues to prepare to close.

When asked if a stay had been granted, state officials referred The Connecticut Mirror to CMS.

A spokesperson from CMS declined to confirm or deny it, stating: “To protect the integrity of our survey process, we are unable to provide additional information at this time.”

Residents have begun receiving discharge notices ahead of the closure, said Mairead Painter, the state’s long-term care ombudsman.

Ragali said Abbott Terrace is looking for locations for its residents to move to and possible transfers to other Athena sites for its nearly 300 employees.

“Residents who have voluntarily decided to discharge from the center are being discharged under their rights,” Ragali said. “Based on the research from our staff at Abbott Terrace, there are 110-skilled nursing beds within a 15-mile radius of Abbott Terrace, with zero beds available on a secure dementia unit.”

Painter said her staff at the Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman is working with Abbott Terrace residents as well to ensure that their rights are being protected and preferences are taken into account.

Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani and Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves said the announcement does not mean that Abbott’s residents have lost their coverage. Residents will still be covered when they move to a facility that participates in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Gabby DeBenedictisManager of Audience Engagement

As manager of audience engagement, Gabby works to grow CT Mirror’s reach and visibility. She is responsible for our website, newsletters, CT Mirror Explains product, and social media channels. Her role also involves working with our editors on the production of stories and analyzing audience data and trends. Gabby previously worked as a reporter on Patch.com’s Connecticut team, as an associate editor at The Woonsocket Call in Rhode Island and as an editing intern at the Houston Chronicle through the Dow Jones News Fund. She is a Connecticut native and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from UConn.

WATERBURY – Connecticut Health Care Associates District 1199 Waterbury Hospital held a no-confidence vote Friday with 133 nurses – or 96% – calling for the dismissal of the hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer Michelle Diaz due to staff shortages and what they referred to as ineffective leadership.

Two nurses described the situation in the hospital as dire, expressing deep concerns about patient care, large Emergency Department patient caseloads, and the lack of working equipment available for them to do their jobs.

Diaz could not be reached for comment.

Lauren LaRoche, a nurse at the hospital for two years, read from a statement she and several nurses wrote on the conditions at the hospital.

“We are more often than not short-staffed and we are left to figure it out and compromise patients safety,” she said. “We have been told countless times that Michelle Diaz would not approve doubles to allow for safer ratios and even at times not answer her phone to give us an answer.”

The term doubles means the hospital allows a registered nurse to stay on longer than their 12-hour shift, LaRoche said.

She said Diaz also disapproved of stabilizing and transferring patients out and instead, the patients stay at the hospital, increasing the volume.

LaRoche said Diaz has violated the state’s hospital staffing law countless times which has led to a mistrust among her staff. The new law requires specific nursing-to-patient ratios and assistive staffing-to-patient ratios.

Gov. Ned Lamont signed the bill into law in June 2023, and it went into effect on Jan. 1. It requires hospitals to submit nurse staffing plans that both nurses and hospital administrators have supported and to implement those nurse-to-patient ratios with the goal of quality care.

“We are being told to clock out for breaks which we are unable to take because it puts our patients at risk,” she said. “There is no one to cover and watch our residents. We all want to work in a safe environment and provide the very best safe patient care possible. We have pride in the community we serve.”

But LaRoche described the staffing situation as bleak.

“We have been stripped down to a skeleton crew,” she said. “So many have left because of how we have been treated as ICU nurses. We have the sickest of patients so overseeing three or four patients at a time instead of two puts us in an anxious state, an anxious overworked state. Being staffed like that allows for mistakes and important things that are being missed putting lives on the line and with all of this we are left without working equipment and short supplies.”

Lauresha Xhihani, director of communications and marketing for Waterbury Health, expressed confidence in Diaz in an email, describing her as “committed to providing exceptional care.”

“They are working on continuous process improvement aimed at providing the best patient experience,” she said. “It is unfortunate that CHCA’s leadership, at the local and regional level, continues to distract our team and our community with disruptive actions such as a vote of no confidence targeting one person. Our hospital thrives on collaboration and partnership.”

Xhihani said she invited the union to work collaboratively with the hospital’s leadership team.

The vote of no confidence also included results that showed that 131 or 95% of nurses taking part in the vote considered leaving Waterbury Hospital in the last six months.

Dawn Mott-Rositani, another nurse at Waterbury Hospital, also shared concerns about staffing and patient safety. The morale is low, she said.

Mott-Rositani said since May six nurses have left the Emergency Department and that the hospital has not replaced them and three more are preparing to leave. She said because they are short-staffed they are unable to move patients out of the ED and into patient rooms, with patient volume increasing and many waiting 12 to 13 hours.

And with a shortage of staff also comes concerns about patient safety.

“There are things missed. Giving medications. Every day things are delayed. Everything gets delayed. Taking patients to their rooms.” She said the equipment is not reliable.

“The computers hardly ever work,” she said. “They break down every day. Most of them are from 2006.” She added that vital sign machines do not work and that half of the thermometers do not work.

“We are using Dollar Tree thermometers and we should be able to use vital sign machines constantly,” she said. “The cuffs do not inflate right. You have to steal a cuff from another room.”

And with a shortage of workers who are tasked with stocking supplies there are times when nothing is stocked. “Every single day you have to go find things that should be stocked,” she said. “It makes everything take longer.”

Mott-Rositani added that the staff has kept her going during the difficulties in the hospital.

Waterbury Hospital’s fate remains in the balance. Yale New Haven Health’s offer to purchase the hospital from Prospect Medical Holdings collapsed and has stalled in legal wrangling.

Lamont said Thursday that Yale New Haven Health and Prospect Medical Group could be close to a breakthrough on the sale of Waterbury Hospital and two other Prospect-owned hospitals.

Lamont confirmed that he and representatives of Yale and Prospect met again last week in the governor’s office to discuss how the two health systems could resolve their differences over the proposed sale price and the state litigation between them.

Lamont stated that Yale and Prospect exchanged financial information that each side is taking back to their respective boards to review. While hopeful of a resolution, he also remained wary.

Yale and Prospect signed an agreement in October 2022 that set a $435 million sales price for Waterbury Hospital, Manchester Memorial Hospital Rockville General Hospital, and a medical group. Yale filed a state lawsuit in early May seeking a declaratory judgment that it is not obligated to close the sale because Prospect allegedly violated the purchase agreement.

Prospect brought a counterclaim against Yale for allegedly breaking the agreement by refusing to pay the negotiated $435 million sales price. The consolidated suits are currently scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 9 in Hartford Superior Court. Yale asked Prospect to lower the price to $150 million in a Jan. 31 proposal, and Prospect declined in a Feb. 15 response, according to court filings.

Ed Gadomski, the internal organizer for Connecticut Health Care Associates District 1199 Waterbury Hospital and Tech Unions, has said that most departments are understaffed, expressing concerns about medical errors occurring because he says the hospital is not compliant with the Hospital Staffing Committee Law.

At the end of August, nearly a month after Waterbury Hospital’s staffing committee agreed on a staffing plan that would increase staffing and provide adequate nursing-to-patient ratios, several nurses with the hospital’s two unions have filed almost daily complaints with the state Department of Public Health that the hospital is failing to meet the plan’s staffing requirements, saying it puts patient care at risk and violates state law.

The two hospital unions filed a complaint in July with the U.S. Inspector General’s Office alleging the hospital failed to meet the requirements of a new law that requires specific nursing-to-patient ratios and assistive staffing-to-patient ratios.

Gadomski also filed a complaint on the same grounds to the state Department of Public Health in January and said in July he received notice that DPH was investigating his complaint. He is still awaiting the outcome of that investigation.

– Paul Hughes contributed to this report.

There are 2 comments. A subscription is required to view the comments Log In or Subscribe today Home Delivery subscribers can Activate thier access. If you don't have home delivery you can purchase a Digital Subscription.