DuPage Care Center: residency waiver approved; renovations near completion but licensing questions remain

The DuPage Care Center received several approvals and an operations update at the DuPage County Human Services Committee meeting on Dec. 2.

Staff member Janelle presented and the committee approved a residency waiver for a candidate who is not currently a DuPage County resident, citing a close family connection in Wheaton and available bed capacity. "We currently have 4 male open beds, 7 female open beds, so no other residents, DuPage County residents would be displaced by accepting this out of county admission," Janelle said. The committee moved, seconded and approved the waiver by voice vote.

Janelle also provided a construction and licensing update for the DuPage Care Center. She said three units are under construction and several units are about 90% complete: "So right now with 3 units under construction, as you see our open beds are smaller. They're tighter because we have so many units under construction... So 2 south, 2 center, 2 north, they're 90% plus complete." She said required documentation had been submitted and staff were "awaiting a notification of either a survey visit or a waiver." Janelle added, "The Health Facility Planning and Review Board feels that the survey will be waived. However, when I've spoken with the clinical survey through IDPH, they said they would never waive a survey." No IDPH representative spoke at the meeting to reconcile the statements.

The committee also approved several DuPage Care Center-related awards and contracts on the agenda: acceptance and appropriation of DuPage Care Center Foundation grants for coordinator ($32,500), recreation therapy ($30,083) and music therapy ($63,486), and contracts for respiratory equipment rental and music therapy services. Staff noted that several items in the transcript list program years and contract periods in ways that appear to be typographical errors; official contract documents should be consulted for exact dates.

The committee recorded direction for standard contract and grant oversight and asked staff to document the residency waiver in the admissions record. No additional licensing decisions were made at the meeting.