Northwood Rehab center fined $6K for ‘excessive trash’ on property

LOWELL — Northwood Rehabilitation & Health Care Center was fined $6,000 for what Sanitary Code Enforcement Inspector Matt Sheehan told the Board of Health was an “excessive amount of trash at the rear of their facility.”

The 123-bed facility offers short-term rehabilitation, as well as long-term respite and hospice care in Pawtucketville.

Sheehan said the anonymous complaint came into the Division of Development Services from a family member of a patient at the center.

“On our initial visit, we instructed them that we would fine them $3,000 if it wasn’t taken care of the next day,” Sheehan told the board at its Wednesday meeting at City Hall. “It was not taken care and more trash was added to the pile. So, another fine was added. It was taken care of the third day.”

DDS is under the Department of Planning and Development and conducts health code inspections and enforcement on the city’s food establishments and schools and reports those findings to the city’s Board of Health, which reports to the Health & Human Services Department.

The Varnum Avenue facility is owned by Athena Health Care Systems, a for-profit Connecticut-based management group established in 1984. It provides health care services at dozens of locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The facility failed its February 2025 city inspection and was cited for numerous violations over a two-month period including a noncompliant fire suppression system, an unserviced kitchen exhaust hood, which could be a fire hazard, mold and a four-day sewage backup.

A follow-up inspection that March noted that the ANSUL system — a brand-name component that describes kitchen hood fire-suppression systems — was still not operational. There also was no ability to wash linens of all types from March 21 through March 25, due to a sewage backup and line blockage.

In previous reporting, Sheehan said meals during that time were being served in Styrofoam containers.

The recent trash pile outside the facility, Sheehan said, “was taller than I was.”

“Corporate didn’t pay their trash removal company,” he said.

The Sun reached out to both the management at Northwood and Athena for comment, but did not receive a response.

Member Erin Gendron noted that the BOH doesn’t typically see nursing homes on the failed inspection list.

“They’ve had their issues,” Sheehan said. “We make it a point to go out to the facility. We’ll go around the perimeter because we’ve had several different issues with them. Some of the patients’ relatives do call and say, ‘I saw X, Y and Z.’”

Following a conversation with Director of Health & Human Services Lisa Golden, Sheehan said DDS notified the Massachusetts Department of Public Health about the trash issue.

“Anytime a major issue comes up, we always call DPH to let them know what we’re dealing with on our end,” Sheehan said.

During departmental and divisional reports and updates, Golden gave a 2025 year-end summary on the city’s syringe collection program. The program was created in 2018, and Syringe Collection Program Coordinator Andres Gonzalez was hired in 2019.

More than 17,000 syringes were removed from the community in 2025, which Golden said are mostly concentrated around where Narcan is given, but also includes used needles from a variety of purposes, such as needles used for insulin, immunosuppression and weight-loss medications.

Naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, is an overdose-reversal medication that can stop a possibly fatal opioid drug overdose. The total number of syringes collected in the city since 2019 hit 100,000 in 2025.

“We do have 311 requests along the walking trails, Kerouac Park and the Riverwalk,” said Golden, referring to Lowell’s non-emergency service request system.

Throwing syringes in a trash or recycling bin, or disposing of them anywhere that is not a safe needle disposal container, is not only against the law, but also poses a health and safety risk to the public and sanitation workers.

Sharps disposal kiosks are at Lowell’s Health Department, 107 Merrimack St., Fourth Floor; the Lowell Senior Center, 276 Broadway St.; Lowell Community Health Center, 161 Jackson St.; and Riverbend, 101 Jackson St., Second Floor.

To remove a syringe from the community, call the syringe collection program coordinator at 978-674-1049.

The Board of Health meets the first Wednesday of every month, at 6 p.m. in the Mayor’s Reception Room on the second floor of City Hall.