Bel-Wood County Owned Nursing Home

At my request, the Journal Star Editorial Board printed my Letter to the Editor (LTE) on June 12 under "In the Spotlight Column" titled 'Costs too high for county to keep supporting Be-lWood Nursing home'.

Since many of my readers do not read the JS, I am reprinted on this blog exactly as the JSEB edited it. At end I will add what additional information should have been made available to the property tax payers in Peoria County who paid $3,241,000 in direct and indirect property taxes in 2009 to support Bel-Wood. A total of over $17million from 2004-2009.

Here is my reprint from the JSEB:

"Imagine the dismay", wrote the JSEB on June 7, 2010, "when one County Board member sought to hit the brakes on the entire (BW) project." No surprise, as I voiced my concern on the JSEB page on June 6, 2009 (Bel-Wood meant to be a Safety Net"), plus numerous times in Peoria County Board Meetings.

Bel-Wood is not a safety net for the poor, as Peoria County Administration estimates that room rates will be only slightly below the private sector, which does accept Medicaid clients. The estimated cost for a new Bel-Wood has risen from $37 million to $54.6 million, all borrowed except the $5 million on hand.

Nursing home censuses are down substantially, some as low as 50% occupancy in the area. Bel-Wood has a daily average of 60 empty beds per day and hasn't had a waiting list for years. More elderly are receiving government-subsidized hoe care.

In 2003, an additional tax levy on property was approved to "maintain" BW Included was approximately $7 million in subsidy costs (taxpayer) dollars previously charge to Bel-wood to help cover operating expenses. The board was told this was common practice for County facilities, citing the Juvenile Center and the Care and Treatment Board. (Actually, my addition) the Juvenile Center subsidies are state mandated and the Care and Treatment Board subsidies are covered by grant money. Bel-Wood has no such mandates or grants to cover IMRF, FICA,etc.

Since the 2003 levy increase, property taxes of more than $17 million have supported Bel-Wood with these taxes paying off a previous, $4.1 debt and daily operating costs. Nothing was spent on a sprinkler system that must now be installed by the end of 2013. Nor a roof that needed to be replaced 10 years ago. In short, the building was not "maintained," as specified in the 2003 referendum.

Bel-wood has had 5 administrators in the last 10 years and has settled more than $750,000 in client claims and fines while carrying a substantial receivables deemed doubtful.

I reiterate that the county should join the 90-plus Illinois Counties that have sold or closed county nursing homes and support the private sector rather than compete against it. Peoria County spends a disproportionate amount of its resources (attorneys, union negotiations, human services, etc.) and time on problems at Bel-Wood.

Bel-Wood also supports 200 union member and the County Board seats 12 Democrats."

Here is information I could have added in my LTE but only so many words are accepted in a LTE. BW supports 161 IBEW union members and 29 non-union members. The reason the BW Fund has around $5 million available for the new building is because of tax dollars were only used to maintain Life-Safety issues, operating costs, not general maintenance such as a new roof, sprinkler system, plumbing, carpentry work, etc.

In order to avoid a new referendum to build a new Bel-Wood, administration and county board members interpreted the 2003 referendum that was worded to "maintain" Bel-Wood that easily passed as authority to replace the 42 year old facility with a new one. Not mentioned in the publicity surrounding the referendum was that BW carried a $4.1 debt but emphasized that Bel-Wood would probably close if the referendum didn't pass. Which as Mr. Monroe pointed out, was not true. Not mentioned was the poor effort that was made to collect past dues with one private pay client running up $141,000 deficit before any collection effort was made. Needless to say that Bel-Wood even today has doubtful accounts running into 6 figures.

No inventory control of drugs was in place, the filing of patient records was a disgrace and some records were destroyed for obvious reasons.

The nursing home business is specialized and Peoria County has a long list of failures including allegations that a union leader was caught in bed with a client in the building. The county should divest itself of this business to the private sector where failure at property taxpayers expense is not an option.