Long-Term Care - Illinois General Assembly

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations were provided by various agencies and organizations and
should be considered as part of any comprehensive strategic long-term care plan. The primary
source of the specific recommendation is indicated. Duplicate comments by other individuals,
groups or organizations are not included, but may be referenced in the attached summaries of
the regional and state meetings.
LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES
• The Illinois nursing home system should be dramatically transformed and strengthened.
Illinois Council on Long Term Care (ICLTC)
• Nursing homes should evolve from hospital-looking environments to more home-like settings
that offer specialty services and private rooms. Illinois Council on Long Term Care (ICLTC)
• To improve living environments in the future, nursing homes should be smaller, with
residents living in private rooms whenever possible. These environments need to be more
"home-like" and stimulating in nature, filled with plants, animals, and children for emotional
health; fitness areas for physical health; safe outside parks for persons with dementia; and
internet areas and entertainment sections for mental stimulation and family communication.
Illinois Council on Long Term Care (ICLTC)
• Resident-centered care should be the underlying theme of care in the future, with incentive
grants offered to facilities that develop new and innovative practices. Illinois Council on Long
Term Care (ICLTC)
• Nursing homes can promote resident-centered care, meeting the specific needs of each
individual resident. This theme is the hallmark of the Pioneer Movement: designing
programs to give residents more day-to-day choices in their life routines, and empower frontline
staff to make more care decisions for the residents they serve. Across the nation,
nursing home providers are looking beyond the traditional nursing home model to develop
new and innovative ways to meet each resident's individual care needs. The kind of
management and staffing changes these programs require, however, are often beyond the
means of Medicaid nursing homes. The state should sponsor an incentive program for
those progressive Medicaid facilities willing to invest in innovative, non-traditional
approaches to care. Illinois Council on Long Term Care (ICLTC)
• Nursing homes should not be considered housing of last resort, sticking people in them
because there is no place else to go. There are 12,000 people with chronic mental illness in
Illinois nursing homes and probably half do not need to be there. Most belong in half-way
houses, not nursing homes. Illinois Citizens for Better Care (ICBC)
• The statewide long-term care occupancy rate currently hovers at about 82% for several
reasons. There is a cost to the state for unoccupied beds, as part of the cost of caring for
Medicaid residents. It is in the state’s interest to provide a financial incentive to providers
willing to give up some of these empty beds. Some of these unused beds may be needed
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