New blood within some nursing homes is SO NEEDED. Especailly when the place has been managed by the same people, and even more of those people are of the OLD SCHOOL thinking.

PEKIN — The new owners of a Pekin nursing home are implementing numerous fundamental changes with the goal of not only complying with state regulations but going far above and beyond them.

“We feel we’ve made a lot of progress in just a short time,” said Amy Chiotti, new administrator of Timbercreek Rehabilitation & Health Care Center, 2220 State St.

Families have commented that they are noticing that staff morale has improved and that residents are happier, she said.

Chiotti’s nursing home is the former Pekin Living & Rehabilitation Center, which came under new ownership last month. It is now owned by Peoria-based Petersen Health Care.

Chiotti is a transitional administrator overseeing the changes and improvements at Timbercreek. When her tasks are complete, she will become regional marketing director for Petersen.

Timbercreek has 113 residents and a staff of more than 110, giving the home a ratio that is close to one staff member per resident. Their license allows them to have up to 202 beds, but with recent remodeling and reorganization, they now have only about 150 beds.

According to Doug Currier, Petersen Health Care’s director of development, in the last five years, Petersen Health Care has expanded from nine to 51 nursing homes and health care facilities in Illinois. It is now the state’s largest senior health care provider.

The company doubled in size this fall, acquiring 24 facilities on Oct. 1, including two nursing homes in Tazewell County: Pekin’s Timbercreek and East Peoria’s Fondulac Woods Health Care Center, now Fondulac Rehabilitation & Health Care Center.

Just five days after Pekin Living & Rehab’s change of ownership, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced a $55,000 fine on the facility for violations that led to the abuse or neglect of two residents.

The facility’s violations had fatal consequences or one of the residents, Lloyd Berkley, 74, who allegedly fell and suffered an acute subdural hematoma on July 4 while he was under the care of a woman who was acting without legal authorization as a registered nurse.

At a Sept. 8 inquest, Berkley’s death was ruled a homicide, and his death remains under investigation by the Tazewell County State’s Attorney’s Office.

“We knew the history of the place, and we went in with a goal,” Currier said. “One of the most valuable things that we can bring to the table has been our 30 years of experience in providing care to those in need,” he said.

Chiotti said she first became familiar with Petersen Health Care through past involvement in a nursing home residents’ rights group.

“Petersen has a really good reputation for turning things around in nursing homes, and I’d seen that in action,” she said.

The nursing home was given “a new name, to show a new start,” Currier said.

Petersen has already implemented several key changes at Timbercreek, including the hiring of new management to make necessary changes in how things are done in home, he said.

Currier also said that Timbercreek has also made a renewed committing to caring. The good care that the staff provided in the past was overshadowed by the bad publicity from the regulatory violations.

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