McHenry Co. chooses new Valley Hi manager

McHenry County would pay a Cary consulting firm more than $500,000 over the next two years to eliminate management problems and revenue shortfalls at its Valley Hi Nursing Home, under a plan narrowly endorsed Thursday by a key county board committee.

In a 4-3 vote, the board's Valley Hi committee approved a contract paying Revere Healthcare Ltd. $270,000 a year, plus a separate administrator's salary, to manage the Woodstock-area facility for at least 24 months.

The vote followed an hour-long debate over whether the benefits such an arrangement would have on the 127-bed home's operations would justify its substantial cost.

"To me it's an awful, awful lot of money," said committee chairwoman Mary Lou Zierer, one of the three who voted against the proposal. "Even if they save us $270,000 a year, we'll only be making out even."

The question of what to do with Valley Hi has been before county board members since July, when an audit of the facility found its annual revenues had fallen $2 million behind expenses and declared the home "managerially dysfunctional."

The report led to the abrupt resignation of Valley Hi Administrator Timothy Wenberg and calls from some county board members to hire a private company to run the home for lower-income seniors.

After weeks of weighing and debating their options, the Valley Hi committee chose Revere under a deal in which the company will be expected to fix what ails the facility within two years. After two years, the county can resume control of the facility or exercise a contract option that would keep Revere in place for another 12 months.

The county also considered hiring a second firm at a cost of about $180,000 annually. But that company, St. Louis-based Management Performance Associates Inc., saw its work as a long-term situation as opposed to Revere's plan for a quick turnaround and exit.

"I like the proposal that Revere is going to come in, take care of the business situation and in 18 to 24 months transition out of there," committee member Peter Merkel said. "It's going to get us moving in the right direction quicker."

Opponents of the Revere deal said they believe the county would be better off hiring a new administrator on its own and letting that person make the needed changes.

The Revere deal, which now goes before the finance and audit review committee and then the full county board, also received an endorsement Thursday from county board Chairman Ken Koehler.

"We have a facility out there that we want to make better than it is, and to do that we have to change our management plan," he said.