CHAMPAIGN – A nearly $1.2 million discrepancy in expenses between two county reports is one of at least two financial problems with the county's nursing home that can be fixed, a University of Illinois accountancy professor said Thursday.

"There is a problem with data integrity, but it's a fixable problem," said Rachel Schwartz, who is an unpaid consultant to the county board.

Schwartz outlined two issues with the nursing home finances to members of both the county board finance committee and the nursing home board of directors during a joint committee meeting Thursday night.

As part of her ongoing analysis, Schwartz reported that while the county's unaudited balance sheet shows $261,602 in accounts payable at the end of fiscal 2007, the county's audited balance sheet shows more than $1.4 million in accounts payable in the same period.

A third report filed with the state showed $988,510 in accounts payable for fiscal 2007.

In addition, the amount the county's nursing home has spent on contract nursing care has ballooned – from nearly $80,000 in fiscal 2003 to nearly $1.3 million in fiscal 2007.

Nursing home Administrator Andrew Buffenbarger said that the increase in contract nursing cost is due to staff vacancies.

But the county, however, would realistically recoup between $300,000 and $350,000 if the vacancies were filled with staff nurses, said Peter Czajkowski, a member of the nursing home board of directors.

Contract nurses could also pose another problem.

"It's not just how much we spend, it's what the percentages are," Schwartz said.

Contract nurses make up nearly 40 percent of the nursing home's total staff, according to Schwartz's report.

"There's no stability, there's no consistency," she said. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's more violations. They are temps, basically. Qualified temps, but temps who come and go."

The county board recently hired a St. Louis firm, Management Performance Associates, at $15,000 a month to manage the nursing home.

Until recently, the nursing home was losing $100,000 a month and faced closure after the state found several problems, including a woman having her leg broken by a mechanical lift last October.

An audit of the county for fiscal 2007 released Thursday found that the nursing home's deficit was $1.41 million. The audit also stated that the county has transferred nearly $1.6 million total to the nursing home over the past five years. Between 2002 and 2007, the nursing home's accumulated losses came to nearly $5 million, according to the audit.