An article from the July 5, 2011 Chicago Tribune  by John Keilman and Amy Alderman describes how nursing homes in Illinois are struggling to stay afloat and maintain their mission to provide compassionate long-term care to residents.

About 75% of the residents in Winchester House, the nursing home described in the article, are on Medicaid. While Medicaid revenues have been stagnant, long-term care costs have kept rising.

The articles discusses measures that must be taken to keep this facility open. One solution will be to turn this county-run facility over to a private company that is able to lower labor and other costs. This will obviously affect the quality of care residents receive.

Due to national and state revenue shortfalls, I anticipate that trends like this will increase over time.