Three staff members of the DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center stood in the hallway waiting for the Illinois state review board meeting to resume.
Dawn Lawton, the dietary director at the home said it’s been a rollercoaster as they try to manage the unknown since the county board sold the home 14 months ago.
“It's very frustrating to have a family member ask you something and you be like, ‘I'm not sure, but, I'm not gonna go anywhere," Lawton said.
“I'm gonna be here for mom or grandma or whoever,” she said, “but we need answers, we need closure.”
No closure was found at the meeting on Tuesday when the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted to delay making a decision on whether to grant the transfer of the county run nursing home to private hands.
The trio quickly left the meeting once the vote was made. They help oversee resident’s care at the home. Lawton said they try to keep morale up, but it’s not easy.
“It's emotional, “ she said.
“You have a lot of staff that want to be there for the residents, but they want to know that their job's here too,” she said.
“You have a hard time hiring new staff, because we have a for sale sign out in front of the door,” she said.
She said her primary concern in the possible transfer of the home is whether the level of care will be maintained. And she has another stake in this — her grandmother is a resident at the home.
“A lot of for-profit facilities work with the state mandated, limited staff, and that doesn't provide quality care,” Lawton said.
“I've had family in profit buildings,” she said, “I don't like them. I like my grandma where she is now, where I know the staff are taking care of her because they're not worried about the bottom dollar.”
Lawton said the extended limbo has also hurt the home’s finances. She said since the sale, the home has not held agreements with private insurance companies. That’s limited the type of residents they can accept. As of now, they can only introduce residents enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare, or who pay out of pocket.
“So, the hospital will send us a referral and we'd have to deny him because we don't accept their insurance,” Lawton said, “So again, we continue to lose money because the county board tied our hands-- we've not been able to move up down anywhere.”
After the state review board’s decision, those against the sale of the nursing home gathered around DeKalb County Administrator Brian Gregory and Board Chair Suzanne Willis to hear from them what the next steps are.
The state review board stated they would defer their decision on whether to approve the transfer, because they considered the application unsettled.
Prior to the meeting the state review board and some county board members were informed that the buyers intend to terminate the sale contract.
So, what’s the possibility of the county board ending the contract?
Gregory said they have to be careful about what they decide to do.
“There's always a way you can cancel something, and it comes with potential penalties,” Gregory said, “and so, as far as the language itself that the county didn't have the ability just to say it, ‘oh, we're gonna cancel without potentially being in violation of breaching the contract.’”
DeKalb County Board Chair Suzanne Willis shared similar sentiments about the need to consider the legal ramifications before terminating the contract.
"We're having we're having our lawyers who are absolutely like looking out for our best interests to give us advice on exactly what and when to do something about that,” she said.
The county administrator said it’s likely the board will consider their options when they meet Wednesday, but he would not say what those options would be.
Supporters of keeping the nursing home under county-ownership called for the county board to have better engagement with the public in talks about the future of the home.
Among them was DeKalb County resident Steve Duchrow.
“The county nursing home has run successfully and paid for itself for 160 odd years, Duchrow said, “We did have this little perfect storm bump, and now we're making our way out of it. We just need time. We just need the energy of our citizens, which is clearly here to get our way out of this.”
He suggested the county board hold public meetings that provide opportunities for residents to give input, beyond the time allotted during public comments at regular board meetings.
