Group calls on Champaign County Board needs to assess nursing-home bed needs

Jun. 2—URBANA — With another local nursing home gone, a group calling itself Advocates for Nursing Home Care sees a crisis ahead — not enough long-term-care beds in Champaign County at a time aging baby boomers are going to need them most.

It's an issue the group's founder, Cathy Emanuel of Champaign, said she confronted recently when her late husband needed nursing home care.

"We're already finding that many of the people involved have friends or loved ones who have to go out of the community, because there aren't enough beds locally," she said.

Of immediate concern to Emanuel and more than 50 other members of the new group is the closure of the 243-bed University Rehabilitation Center — formerly the Champaign County Nursing Home until it was sold in 2019.

An employee at the nursing home said Thursday that it's still set to close as planned June 17, but Illinois Department of Public Health spokesman Mike Claffey said the same day there are no residents left at that facility, and all have been transitioned to other facilities.

Along with that closure, ClarkLindsey's Meadowbrook Health Center in Urbana is downsizing from 105 nursing home beds to 50.

And two other nursing homes in Champaign that were sold in 2018 have been sold and closed. Those facilities — purchased by a buyer of the former county nursing home, William "Avi" Rothner, and members of his family — included the former Helia Healthcare of Champaign at 1915 S. Mattis Ave. and former Heartland of Champaign at 309 E. Springfield Ave.

According to data from the state Health Facilities and Services Review Board, Champaign County had 710 total existing nursing home beds as of 2021, with a projected need of 721 beds by 2024.

With ClarkLindsey downsizing nursing home beds and the University Rehabilitation closure, the county will have 412 nursing home beds, according to Emanuel.

That includes beds at Country Health Care & Rehab, Gifford; Illini Heritage Rehab & Health Care, Champaign; Champaign-Urbana Nursing & Rehab, Savoy; and ClarkLindsey.

While there were excess nursing home beds in some surrounding counties as of 2021, Emanuel and others contend it's important to keep nursing home patients in their own communities where their family members and friends can visit them frequently and monitor their care.

"This is so important," said Claudia Lennhoff, executive director of Champaign County Health Care Consumers. "I can't overstate the importance of that."

Members of the new group hope to address the Champaign County Board at its next meeting June 22 to make two requests.

One is to fund and undertake a needs assessment of long-term-care beds in the community.

The other is to continue to say no to a request from Rothner to waive a covenant in the 2019 sales agreement that requires the former county nursing home to remain a nursing home until 2028.

Rothner has told the county board more than once that the facility was sustaining heavy losses, and if the covenant is waived, he could sell it to a buyer that would convert it to a substance-abuse treatment facility.

County Board Chairman Kyle Patterson said the board has been consulting with its attorneys and hasn't made any decisions concerning the nursing home facility.

"The reality is it's going to close no matter what we do," Patterson said. "If we allow them to change the covenant, it's going to close. If we don't allow them to change the covenant, it's going to close. There's nothing the board can do to prevent the closure of University Rehab."

While the board couldn't stop the closure, Lennhoff and Emanuel contend, it can stop the facility from being converted to a non-nursing home use, at least until 2028.

Better for the facility to stand empty for a time, allowing for the potential of another nursing home operator taking it over, Lennhoff said.

"I think the community and the county board needs to understand what the need is currently, and what it will be," Lennhoff said.

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