Champaign County Nursing Home Board Endorses New Budget for FY 2010

The Champaign County Nursing Home Board voted Thursday night to send the county board a 16-point-2 million dollar budget plan for fiscal year 2010. It's a budget they think they can keep in the black --- if they're careful.

Nursing home management consultant Mike Scavotto says a lot depends on keeping the number of nursing home residents high. That's been difficult in the past few months, as the nursing home census has frequently dipped into the 180s --- officials would like to see it above 200. Scavotto blames the decline in nursing home population on the poor economy. If the nursing home census DOES stay down in 2010, he says they'll have to manage nursing home expenses accordingly.

"You don't continue to buy things when you don't need as many of them," says Scavotto. "You don't continue to have as many people in your staff when you can flex. And that's the system here. So they've been pretty good at flexing. So we'll have to see how that's going in the census downturn."

Scavotto says the Champaign County Nursing Home will face another financial burden next year. For the first time, it will start paying back the county for money it was loaned for operations and additional construction costs. That will add another 200-thousand dollars to the nursing home budget. The nursing home built up the debt during a time when its operations were deeply in the red. But Scavotto says the Champaign County Nursing Home has stayed in the black so far in 2009 for expenses that don't include depreciation costs.