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Purchase of nursing home company concerns union

Posted October 10, 2007 11:00 pm

Dana Heupel

Patient care - not profits - should be the prime concern when an investment group purchases a large nursing home company, a union representing health-care workers said Wednesday.

The Carlyle Group, an investment company, is nearing completion of a $6.3 billion takeover of HCR Manor Care, which has 27 nursing homes with 3,902 beds in Illinois and about 350 facilities nationwide. It operates under the names of ManorCare Health Services, Heartland and Arden Courts.

"We want to make sure that the residents are taken care of properly when Carlyle takes over," Tim Thomas, secretary-treasurer for Local 4 of the Service Employees International Union, said at a Statehouse news conference.

He and others pointed to a Sept. 23 analysis by the New York Times that showed staffing levels and patient care often suffer when investment firms purchase nursing home companies.

"Quality care is our top priority, for Manor Care executives as well as the Carlyle Group," responded Carlyle spokesman Chris Ullman when told of the union's concerns. "We will make care a top priority because that's in the best interest of seniors and their families, and that will continue after we buy the company."

SEIU, he said, is using "scare tactics for seniors."

"Organized labor over the past century has done a lot of good for workers," Ullman said. "The tactics that they are employing here do not represent unions at their best."

Although SEIU doesn't represent workers at HCR Manor Care homes in Illinois, Thomas said Illinois locals are joining others in seven states where the company has homes and does employ SEIU members. He said he is not concerned that Carlyle will try to break the union, but members do worry about possible staff cuts.

State Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said perhaps lawmakers need to re-examine how nursing homes are regulated in light of the current trend of corporate buyouts.

"We need to be sure that the statutes we have are effective in policing these companies," he said.

Harris was among more than 20 legislators who signed letters to the state Department of Public Health, seeking an investigation into the effect the corporate buyout might have on nursing home residents.

Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for Public Health, said the agency is reviewing the matter to ensure the sale follows provisions set out in the Nursing Home Care Act.

"We are open to any documentation that SEIU would like to provide for review," she said.

The Carlyle Group owns such brands as Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins along with other diverse businesses from aerospace companies to real estate.

"Carlyle Group is not a health-care company," said the Rev. Charles Jackson of St. John's AME Church in Springfield, "and what they know about God's children is certainly a concern in my life."

Jackson said he frequently visits parishioners in nursing homes, though not necessarily those owned by HCR Manor Care. Among its Illinois holdings are facilities in Peoria, East Peoria, Normal, Canton, Galesburg, Macomb, Decatur and Champaign.

Carlyle's board is scheduled to vote next week on whether to give final approval to the purchase.

Dana Heupel can be reached at (217) 788-1518 or dana.heupel@sj-r.com.

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