URBANA – To save the county's nursing home, the Champaign County Board brainstormed Tuesday night, with deadlines coming up fast.

Nursing home administrator Andrew Buffenbarger estimated that the nursing home could need to borrow another $400,000 to $500,000 from the county by June.

But Debra Busey, the county's finance administrator, said that if the nursing home has to borrow from the general corporate fund, that fund will have to borrow from yet another county fund, such as the county's pension funds.

And those funds could well be short, since property taxes only begin to come in June.

Closing or privatizing the home was only tangentially discussed.

The county's $24 million nursing home was hit with an unexpected $600,000 shortfall in Medicaid funds last month, as well as an increase in contract nursing costs.

Board Chairman C. Pius Weibel, a Champaign Democrat, said the meeting was about coming up with ideas, not debating, and he called it a "good-natured session." Among the ideas to cut costs were using county accounting services rather than the nursing home's in-house system, using energy-efficient bulbs and appliances, asking unionized workers to come up with suggestions in cost-cutting and cutting non-nursing employees.

To cut costs, Buffenbarger said, the home could cut staff and stop admitting new clients.

He suggested two areas where new revenues might be found: long-term care for honorably discharged veterans, and a younger population for rehabilitation services.

The changes would require new certification for the beds.

The home was built to accommodate 243 beds; the current census is 173.

Buffenbarger said filling the beds could actually increase the operating losses.

Brad Jones, a Republican from Champaign, said the county nursing home has heating, housekeeping and dietary costs well above average for similar facilities.

Buffenbarger said new controls for heating and air-conditioning are programmed more efficiently, but savings will take time to accrue.

Although board members suggested looking at some reductions in staffing, they agreed that more nurses should be hired to avoid the more costly option of agency nurses.

Three residents took advantage of the public participation session, all of them members of the home's union, AFSCME.

Tara McCauley, a staff representative of AFSCME Council 31, said the nursing home has a major problem with keeping workers.

By the end of six months' probation, 87 percent of certified nurse's aides have left, she said.

Chapter Chair Darla Dowdy said worker morale is low, making it hard to retain staff.

Another AFSCME staffer, Kent Beauchamp, said the home could run more cost-effectively with more permanent nursing positions and fewer contract nurses.