Often, when a deal to sell a healthcare facility collapses at the 11th hour, employees pay the price. In Illinois this month, the employees are getting paid extra.

The 145 full- and part-time employees of a county-run nursing home will receive bonus payments that were promised as a way to keep them onboard during a lengthy sales process, despite the facility sale being canceled.

Workers at the DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center were promised a $2 per hour bonus based on the number of hours worked from Aug. 1, 2022, until a sale to a private buyer went through, local media reported. But the sale is off as of Oct. 18, said county Administrator Brian Gregory, who declined when contacted by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on Monday to say why the sale fell through. 

“There have been no discussions yet,” on another buyer, he said, adding that the country’s focus will be on maintaining operations. 

The DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center has been in operation since 1853 and is the largest healthcare provider in DeKalb County. Although it has 190 beds, Gregory said there are currently about 100 residents. The county is in the process of identifying new funding sources, Gregory said. Notes from the County Board’s Oct. 18 meeting indicate that the facility is losing approximately $200,000 per month and has been operating at a deficit for several years. 

The bonus payments were intended as a retention program while the county pursued sale but with the termination of the expected $8.3 million transaction, county officials recommended still paying out the money. Employees will receive the bonus for time worked between Aug. 1, 2022, and Oct. 18, 2023. The nursing home has a 2-star rating on Medicare Care Compare site, although the rating for staffing sits at 4 stars. 

“[I]]t’s honoring that commitment to the employees that expected that this potential bonus could be there, so that’s the recommendation that came from staff,” Gregory told the County Board, per Shaw Local News Network.
Gregory told McKnight’s that the one-time bonuses will cost approximately $300,000.