Skip to main content
Home Centers Communications Important Note About Isabella Center

Important Note About Isabella Center

November 12, 2025

Dear All MJHS, Elderplan/HomeFirst and Menorah Center Employees:  

As valued members of the MJHS Health System family, we want to  make you aware of an important decision and how it came about.

It is with great difficulty that we share that our Board of Directors and System Leadership have made the extremely challenging decision to sell Isabella Center. While it’s possible you might have already heard rumors about our plans to sell, it was important for us to have formal board approval before sharing the news with you. That was just completed. The sale will include the 705-bed nursing home, Isabella House, and the 4-acre campus. MJHS Menorah Center is not for sale. 

Isabella has faced financial struggles for more than a decade with MJHS investing more than $60 million since its acquisition. Today, Isabella continues to face significant losses of $6MM per year. This does not include the anticipated funds that will be required to upgrade the 50-year-old campus. As a not-for-profit, we simply cannot afford to continue underwriting these losses. Unfortunately, we’re not alone. Since 2013, a significant number of not-for-profit nursing homes have, or are in the process of, changing hands.

I want to assure you that we tried very hard to avoid this decision. However, it’s important to know that once we made the difficult decision to sell, our priorities became finding a buyer who has:

  • Experience operating Nursing Homes in NY
  • High Quality Ratings
  • And appreciates the important role Isabella plays in the community

We have not yet entered into definitive agreements with a buyer, and selling a nursing home is a lengthy process. We expect that a final transaction will not actually close before early 2028. Importantly, we need our extraordinary staff at Isabella Center to continue playing an essential role in providing our patients, residents and their family members with compassionate, high-quality care.

We know this is a lot to digest, so I want to reinforce that: Isabella is not closing; selling to a qualified buyer will actually help ensure the future of Isabella; and MJHS Menorah Center is not for sale.

We will provide an update when more information is available.  

David Wagner
President & CEO
MJHS Health System