Cook’s nursing home

The Cook Nursing Home, open since 1965, could be undergoing a major renovation by next summer. But despite a $7 million price tag, the Cook-Orr Area Healthcare District plans to pursue the project without putting additional burden on the district’s taxpayers.

That’s a wise decision. Area taxpayers have already seen significant increases in their property taxes with School District 2142 and the healthcare district as the key contributors to rising taxes.

The healthcare district levy currently stands at $1.3 million, more than double the levy it collected in 2008. Much of that increase has been driven by the rising costs of health care and the state’s failure to keep pace with inflation on nursing home reimbursements.

Minnesota lawmakers finally provided some relief in 2015, passing legislation that will reimburse nursing homes based on their actual costs. The state had departed from that approach in 1995, doling out far more meager increases to nursing homes.

Restoring more funds to nursing homes helped the healthcare district hold the line on its levy this year, and made it more likely that the nursing home project could be done without affecting taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Admini-strator Teresa Debevec is searching for other sources that could help fund the project. The district is applying for a $350,000 grant from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, and, this fall, will seek a waiver from a state moratorium on nursing home construction.

The IRRRB should award the grant. Not only is this a project that will improve the quality of life for seniors residing at the Cook Nursing Home, but it will also help maintain an important economic anchor for Cook and the surrounding community.

The Cook Hospital and Nursing Home is the area’s largest employer with more than 130 full-time equivalent workers. If the nursing home were to close, many of those jobs would disappear. Without a nursing home attached to the hospital, some services such as food service would likely be discontinued. The loss of the nursing home might even endanger the hospital’s future, which may not have as robust a patient load without the nursing home.

The remodeling and expansion of the nursing home is also needed to bring Cook in line with the current model for nursing homes. Currently, residents share rooms at the nursing home, which can make privacy difficult. It also complicates matters when beds become available because residents must be the same gender to share a room.

The remodeling and expansion would create private rooms, address some longstanding repair needs, and provide greater privacy for residents.

Those improvements are all key priorities for the state in deciding whether to grant a nursing home a waiver from its moratorium on construction. Should the state approve the waiver, it would also help reimburse the nursing home for a portion of its construction expenses.

A recent community health survey confirmed the public’s support for the nursing home and emphasized the need for such a facility in the area. But the public is also concerned about rising property taxes in an era of stagnant wages.

The Cook-Orr Area Healthcare District is right to consider both the need for a remodeled and expanded nursing home and the need for relief from ever-rising property taxes. The approach they’ve selected — moving forward with the project, but not at the expense of rising taxes — shows they’re on the right track.