The stark financial differences between urban and suburban nursing homes in Illinois played into comments heard Thursday by a task force appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn.
The stark financial differences between urban and suburban nursing homes in Illinois played into comments heard Thursday by a task force appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn. Urban nursing homes, where most residents’ care is paid by Medicaid, may not be able to spend as much on staffing as suburban facilities, said a nursing home industry representative, speaking against across-the-board increased staffing requirements being proposed by the task force. "An inner city, all-Medicaid home must live within its resources, which may be less than a suburban home with more private pay and Medicare residents," said Terry Sullivan of the Health Care Council of Illinois, the state’s largest nursing home trade group. "Across-the-board, one-size-fits-all staffing ratios do not improve care." Last week, the task force released 27 draft recommendations aimed at ending a pattern of assaults, rapes and murders in nursing homes by residents with criminal backgrounds and mental illness. Many nursing homes would be forced to hire more nurses and nursing assistants under the draft plan. More than any other state, Illinois has relied on nursing homes to house younger adults with serious mental illnesses, an Associated Press analysis found. Frail elderly residents have been victimized by stronger, younger residents living next door — or sometimes in the same room. A Chicago Tribune series of articles prompted Quinn to form the task force. Several advocates for residents told the task force Thursday that they favor increased staffing. The Rev. Elaine Bellis of Chicago’s Community Renewal Society, a faith-based organization, said more nurses and nursing assistants are especially important in the inner city where the majority of nursing home residents are black. "We are looking at the civil rights aspect to this," Bellis said. She and others cited an analysis by the Chicago Reporter, which found a disproportionate number of Illinois nursing homes with mostly black residents appear on a federal list of poorly performing facilities. Bellis and state Sen. Jacqueline Collins of Chicago asked the task force to include protections against racial bias in its final recommendations. The state now requires nursing homes to provide 2.5 hours of nursing care per resident per day, which translates into about 31 certified nurse aides and licensed nurses per 100 residents. The task force is suggesting raising minimum requirements in a way consistent with a federally sponsored study on nursing home staffing released in 2001. That would raise the state’s staffing minimums by 42 percent to 64 percent. Task force chairman Michael Gelder said the state’s recent notice to a Chicago nursing home that it will be shut down if it doesn’t correct problems is an example of how seriously Illinois takes the issue of resident safety. The nursing home, Somerset Place, has said managers are taking steps to fix problems. The federal government also told the facility it has until Feb. 7 to correct problems or it will lose federal funds. The nursing home industry also objects to proposed increased licensing fees for nursing homes, which would be used to pay for tougher state regulation in the task force’s draft plan. Higher fees would take money away from resident care, Sullivan said. The task force plans to release its final report to Quinn later this month. "We want nursing homes," Gelder said of the regulatory emphasis in the draft recommendations. "We don’t want the bad ones to sully the reputation of the good ones." ___ On the Net: https://www2.illinois.gov/nursinghomesafety Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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