Out With Nursing Homes, In With Home Health Care

Northwestern Medicine may have found the one hospital market where investment in long-term care hasn't paid off: affluent north suburban Lake Forest.

Northwestern-owned Lake Forest (Ill.) Hospital recently applied to permanently shutter its long-term-care unit, Westmoreland Nursing Center, citing increased operating costs, failure to adequately fill 84 beds and flood damage from mid-July.

In its application to the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board, which decides on healthcare projects to prevent duplicating services, Lake Forest Hospital noted that it originally planned to close the long-term-care facility by the end of the year, but that heavy rain damaged the nursing home and forced early transfer of patients. The board received the hospital's application to discontinue 660 N. Westmoreland Road on July 28.

Although the number of aging baby boomers has swelled in recent years to the fastest growing population in the U.S.—there were 49.2 million in 2016, up 40% from 2000—people are more likely to end up in assisted living facilities or rely on home health professionals for care, said Jason Lundy, partner of the health practice group at law firm Polsinelli. Only the sickest patients now end up in nursing homes, he said. What's more, patients 65 and older tend to find these accommodations more comfortable.

This trend has meant nursing home services are not as profitable for hospitals. "I don't think hospitals generally see long-term nursing as an area where they're going to make a profit or substantial revenue," Lundy said.

All of Lake Forest Hospital will be vacated by early spring and replaced by a new $378 million healthcare center, slated to open at the same location and be fully operational by March. A new long-term-care facility is not included in Lake Forest Hospital's plans.

Northwestern spokesman Chris King claimed the absence of an updated nursing home on a "new healthcare model."

"We determined the regulatory and financial resources required to maintain an independent custodial care facility on the Lake Forest Hospital campus would no longer be feasible," King said in an emailed statement.

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Author: Nona Tepper