Report says Valley Hi losses shrinking

About one year after a divided McHenry County Board voted to hand over operations of its Valley Hi nursing home to a private firm, costs there continue to outpace revenues, but what was once a $2 million gap is closing.

Rising revenues and cost-cutting measures have reduced the home's operating deficit by $439,000 through the first nine months of the year, according to a presentation to the county board Tuesday night by Revere Healthcare Ltd.

"We're definitely making the right progress," Revere senior financial consultant John Smith said.

Board members last year narrowly approved a measure to pay the Cary-based Revere $270,000 a year to manage the Woodstock-area nursing home through at least 2010. The move came after the facility's administrator abruptly resigned in July 2007 in the wake of a report that blamed mismanagement for a $2 million budget shortfall.

Since assuming control nine months ago, Revere representatives said Tuesday, the home has increased its revenues by more than $310,000 while cutting costs by $129,000.

Some of the savings have come through cutting the use of contracted nurses to fill staffing shortages by more than 650 shifts, reducing costs by $57,000.

Besides altering the home's bottom line, Revere officials said they are trying to change the culture of the facility by working harder to address residents' concerns and improving the quality of care they receive. To that end, the facility has created a new safety committee, created a quality assurance director position and initiated a new grievance procedure for residents and their families, the home's new administrator, Bob Yearian said.

County Board Chairman Ken Koehler said that culture change is at the heart of Valley Hi's survival as a public nursing home for lower-income residents.

"It's absolutely imperative we see this cultural change," he said. "Many of the things we're doing, if we didn't do it, the level of care would continue to go down and we would have to exit the industry."