Nursing staffing shortages have plagued nursing homes for years and only worsened during the pandemic. The JB Pritzker administration and an influential lobbying group representing for-profit nursing homes have been in negotiations for more than two years over Medicaid rate reform aimed at incentivizing nursing home operators to hire more nursing staff. State Sen. Ann […]
Maria Gardner
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Nursing home reform takes shape
Legislators may have a bill on nursing home rate reform to debate in January, but it faces a rocky future, according to several sources. The largest nursing home lobbying group, representing for-profit nursing homes, opposes the current proposal. After 18 months of discussions with advocacy groups, Theresa Eagleson, the director of the Illinois Department of […]
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The many sad faces of nursing home closures
“I was very sad,” said Susan Hovey, a geriatric researcher at University of Illinois Chicago, when she heard the annoucements of the closing of St. Joseph’s Home of Springfield and Heritage Health of Springfield. Hovey, who also serves as the associate director of the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science, said she took students to observe […]
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The driver behind the coat drive
During the brisk morning, a visitor held up a coat wondering if the item would be a good fit. Sherrie Henderson said the coat and blanket drive held by Freedom in Holiness Mission on Loveland Avenue is convenient because it occurs right before winter arrives. “They wash everything and there are no bugs,” Henderson said. […]
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Sweetening the shot
Teresa Haley, president of the Springfield NAACP chapter, lost her father to COVID-19. He died of complications from the disease in December. “I was only able to see him a few times before he died and we could not touch him,” Haley told Illinois Times. The nursing home Haley’s father was living in shut its […]
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Fire station strategies
Visit Springfield Fire Department Station #1 on East Capitol Avenue and you will see the firefighters’ pole near the garage entrance. It’s partially enclosed by a metal railing – as if it were a shrine to the profession. The city’s 206 firefighters now take the stairs to respond to fires or, increasingly, to attend to […]
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Back to business
Drive downtown in Springfield and you will see the impact of the pandemic. Shuttered restaurants and stores, unkempt sidewalks and scant foot traffic all point to a city struggling to bounce back from years of a struggling economy as well as COVID-19. A new statewide pandemic relief program seeks to reach small businesses that were […]
