Management Firm Holds Out Hope For Champaign County Nursing Home

It’s not clear how long the Champaign Count Nursing Home will continue under county ownership. The county board has retained a broker to explore a possible sale of the facility.  But in the meantime, the county has brought in a new management firm to run the nursing home. SAK Management Services specializes in troubled healthcare facilities, and has installed new administrators at the Champaign County Nursing Home, include chief administrator Kim Colbrook.

Several operational changes have been made during SAK's first few weeks, and the firm says it's looking for more opportunities to operate more efficiently and bring in more revenue, while maintaining quality of service.

Illinois Public Media’s Jim Meadows talked with two of the firm’s top executives --- Suzanne Koenig its founder and chief executive officer, and Joyce Ciyou, SAK's chief operating officer. Koenig speaks first in the attached audio segment, telling Jim that they’ve been pretty busy their first few weeks.

Meanwhile, a local group formed to support the Champaign Nursing Home is holding a free concert and ice cream social to let people see how the facility it doing. The Auxiliary and Friends of the Champaign County Nursing will hold the event on Sunday afternoon, August 27th, from 2 to 3:30 PM, at the courtyard of the nursing home, which is located in Urbana, off of Lierman Avenue.