Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

As frequently reported on this blog, elderly residents across the country now have more options when they reach a point in their lives when they need additional assistance. Our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti continue to watch as nursing homes provide inadequate care to vulnerable residents in their facilities, so it is no surprise than many seniors wish to avoid these negligent homes for as long as possible.

One alternative option is participation in what are becoming known as "elderly villages.” As discussed today in a Columbus Dispatch article, there are currently around 50 villages in the country, with nearly 100 more in various stages of being organized. These villages are buddy-style communities that allow seniors the chance to stay in their homes but still receive low-cost nursing visits, home maintenance, and other help that is needed.

The group is comparatively low-cost, with members paying $400 a year to cover employment costs of two staff members and other expenses. Collectively, members are able to negotiate discounts with home-care aides, physical therapists, and other medical providers.

Besides that basic care, the village also acts as a support community, helping each other when necessary. Monthly events are held which helps educate seniors, for example, on avoiding financial scams—a growing problem in the community.

For many elderly residents who are in need of additional help as they age, the benefits of the village are clear. Maintaining their independence is an important consideration for many seinors. As one member of an elder village explained, “I don’t want to have to move to a retirement community and I don’t want to move in with my children.”

The popularity of these alternative care communities will continue to grow. If traditional nursing home providers keep allowing inadequate and abusive elder care at their group homes, than the benefits of the alternatives will become even more obvious. As the director of one elder village explained, “It’s a revolution.”

Thirty years ago, when a senior needed extra medical care beyond that which he or she could do themselves, they virtually had no other choice but to move into a nursing home. Today things are much different. The Rockford Register Star recently discussed the change and the effect it has had on nursing home businesses in the Chicago area. Assisted living facilities, home care groups, and retirement centers now abound, allowing seniors increasing freedom to choose the type of aide that best matches their needs. The trend is considered a positive development by all who care about allowing seniors the chance to preserve their freedom and live happy, fulfilling, independent lives.

However, the expanded options have made it tougher for traditional nursing homes to fill beds in their facilities. Nursing home officials make money based on the payments paid for the care of each resident. The more residents at the facility, the more money the home receives. However, with more seniors taking advantage of options besides traditional nursing homes, the competition to fill the beds is tightening. As a result, many areas near Chicago are “overbedded”—meaning that there are more available places in nursing homes than there are individuals in need of nursing home care.

In fact, many nursing home officials are attempting to avoid further competition by stopping the creation of new long-term care facilities. For example, in the Rockford area, nursing home administrators are hoping that state officials stop the creation of two new special facilities—Pecatonica Pavilion and Warrior’s Gateway. The two new locations would cater to different populations, with Warrior’s Gateway specifically targeting those with traumatic brain injuries and multiple traumas. However, regardless of their clients, nursing home administrators believe that the new organizations would simply be more competition, making it harder for them to fill available beds in their nursing homes.

The declining occupancy rates have ultimately led to tighter budgets at many facilities. The budget challenges can pose a real problem for patient care.

Our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti are well aware of the potential for neglect at nursing facilities when the business-side of the enterprise completely overwhelms the quality of care. With vulnerable elderly residents involved, the quality of care given at these facilities should never be sacrificed in an attempt to save cash. But when money becomes especially scare at these facilities, nursing home officials often panic and resort to arcane budget reduction measures.

For example, nursing staff and nursing assistants are often reduced in order to save on employment costs. But the reductions can go too far, because Illinois nursing home law requires that each resident be given a certain minimum amount of nursing care each day. Our attorneys continue to watch local facilities to ensure that these and similar requirements are met. Please contact our office if you suspect that the care at a local nursing home is being sacrificed.

The News-Tribune posted a story last weekend about recent investigations by the Illinois Department of Public Health after a complaint was filed against an employee at the La Salle County nursing home. Details about the complaint are minimal, because the investigation is ongoing. However, it is known that a certified nursing assistant at the facility is claimed to have committed some act of sexual abuse on a resident.

This is not the first hint of problems at this particular Illinois facility. Over the past two years, the home has experienced other molestation incidents—involving residents abusing other residents. In addition, the financial decisions made by the administrators have been questioned. In one instance the nursing home committee of the county board ignored required processes in state law when bidding on furniture for the facility.

With these recent problems is it no surprise that the La Salle County nursing home has lacked leadership—the previous administrator resigned earlier this month over disagreements about hiring powers. The string of management problems has led many on the La Salle County Board (which governs the nursing home) to look into privatization options.

The repeated problems at this county board institution are a sober reminder that both public and private elder care facilities suffer from abuse and neglect. Our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti have been involved in legal fights involving abuse in various homes for the elderly. The La Salle example makes clear that nursing home abuse can run rampant in facilities run by governments without clear accountability standards. However, private institutions which seek to make a profit off these facilities are often just as willing to sacrifice the quality of care in order to save on the bottom line. No matter who runs these facilities, the appropriate resources must be expended to ensure that the level of care complies with the law and protects the rights of elderly residents.

The Florida Times-Union profiled a nursing home entrepreneur who has continuously skirted the law, tolerating nursing home abuse in an effort to maximize personal profits. Robert Hagan owns sixteen nursing homes in several states, a business which has provided him with an upper class living—he owns three million-dollar-plus homes. Mr. Hagan has built his nursing home business fortune by agreeing to take “difficult” residents, including Alzheimer’s patients, the psychotically ill, and criminal offenders.

Mr. Kagan was quick to accept the tens of millions of dollars in federal money to care for these difficult patients. But he was less eager to accept the responsibility of ensuring that the facilities that housed the residents were safe and secure. One of his nursing homes in particular, Glenwood Nursing Center, has shown itself to be a bastion of abuse and neglect. For example, one resident, Virginia Thurston, was raped at Glenwood in 2002 by another resident. Nursing home staff members failed to prevent the attack, even though they were well aware of the potential for assault.

Ms. Thurston’s daughter filed suit against the nursing home for their negligence in allowing the attack. After hearing the case, a jury demanded Glenwood pay the Thurston family $750,000 for their mistakes.

The family has not yet received a dime.

Mr. Hagan has used procedural and business maneuvers to avoid paying the judgment against his facility. He attempted to “sell” the facility to a new business to thwart the collection of the judgment. Officials only recently discovered that Hagan was the owner of the new company which supposedly bought the nursing home. Ownership did not actually change hands.

This attempt to wiggle out of his responsibilities and ignore nursing home laws seems to be a trend for Hagan. In fact, Florida state officials have attempted to revoke Glenwood’s nursing license to force the closure of the facility after repeated examples of residents becoming physically aggressive with one another. Yet after a stay was granted, the nursing facility is still operating indefinitely while they drag out the appeals process.

The extreme lengths to which nursing home administrators are willing to go to avoid paying for their mistakes is exactly why it is important to contact nursing home abuse attorneys like ours at Levin & Perconti. Even obvious examples of nursing home abuse are often difficult to translate into legal judgments. After a verdict is reached, it then takes even more legal maneuvering to actually collect the money. Please do not allow yourself to be taken advantage of by profit-driven nursing home administrators. If you or a loved one has been neglected at a nursing home contact our lawyers today.

John J. Donahue was 93 years old when he died in 2005 following a horrific accident at the Embassy House nursing home, according to the Boston Herald. The facility is owned by Kindred Healthcare, a for-profit company which owns more than 40 nursing homes in and around Boston.

While living at the facility, a mechanical machine known as a “Hoyer lift” was used to lift Mr. Donahue from his bed. Two nursing home employees were supposed to used the machine at all times, because it’s the process needed to be performed delicately to avoid injuring the resident. However, in 2005 a staff member at the nursing home attempted to move Mr. Donahue without the necessary aide of a second employee. The single aide was unable to perform the operation safely. During the move a metal safety hook on the device caught Mr. Donahue’s face. The hook eventually gouged his eye, which eventually had to be removed. The victimized resident died a little more after the accident from sepsis.

Mr. Donahue’s family sued following the accident. However, they initially ran into a few legal complexities. A few years before his death, the nursing home had asked Mr. Donahue to sign a “voluntary” arbitration agreement whereby he agreed to give up his right to sue the nursing home following an accident or his death and instead arbitrate the disagreement. Arbitration is an alternative form of dispute resolution that involves a neutral “arbitrator.” The arbitration process can be long, expensive, and unfeasible to many.

Eventually, a judge invalidated the arbitration agreement that Mr. Donahue had signed, because he was 91 years old at the time and suffering from dementia. Obviously, it is highly inappropriate for a nursing home chain to ask a mentally suffering resident to sign away his legal rights.

It was over five years later that an actual trial took place regarding the Hoyer lift accident, with the jury awarding compensation to the family for the negligent nursing home conduct.

Nursing homes typically use all the legal tricks in their arsenal to avoid paying up for the mistakes that their employees make. That is why our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti encourage you to contact our office and allow us to use our decades of experience battling nursing home abuse to help vindicate your rights.

Please Click Here to learn more about the tragic case of Mr. Donahue.

We have been tracking the case out of the Britthaven of Chapel Hill, a nursing home embroiled in a tragic controversy of overmedication and death. As previously reported, a registered nurse at the facility was charged with second-degree murder and six counts of patient abuse.

The nurse, Angela Almore, had given several Alzheimer’s patients opiate drugs in an effort to make them more manageable and easier to handle. None of the patients were supposed to be receiving any pain medication. Eventually, the reckless medication behavior led to the death of one resident, Rachel Holliday. Ms. Holliday died from pneumonia-related asphyxiation, with “morphine toxicity” as a factor.

As WRAL News is reporting, state officials have now cited the nursing home itself for its negligent conduct that allowed the abuses to occur. After an extensive investigation of the facility, state officials uncovered many examples of unprofessional conduct, inadequate services, and unnecessary prescriptions of drugs. The state is fining the facility $20,000 for the errors, an amount which many local officials believe to be too small considering the seriousness of the violations.

The findings of other violations at the nursing home beyond the extreme example of opiate drugging suggest that once a culture of negligent treatment is accepted at a facility, repeated abuses occur. It is for that reason that it is especially important for even small signs of substandard nursing home care to be confronted and fixed.

Basic nursing home violations are often a slippery slope leading to severe abuse and death for vulnerable elderly residents. That is why our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti support all efforts to hold inadequate facilities accountable for the abiding by state and federal nursing home laws. Please contact our attorneys if suspect any violations as a facility near you.

Embassy Health Care, a nursing home outside of Chicago in Will County, was recently challenged by nursing home regulators for providing inadequate care to the residents at the facility.

ABC 7 News recently discussed the problems the facility faces after federal inspectors uncovered troubling incidents of poor nursing home care. Specifically, the Wilmington nursing home was found to have neglected patients leading to the development of pressure sores. As has been explained often on this blog, pressure sores (also known as bed sores or pressure ulcers) are painful and harmful skin lesions that are almost always caused by inadequate care.

In addition, regulators noted that building maintenance problems were ignored by the facility. A fundamental component of proper resident care at nursing homes is the assurance that the actual building itself is safe and secure. Embassy was failing at this basic task.

After finding these problems, regulators explained that if they were not adequately corrected, the facility would lose all of its federal funding near the end of August. Embassy is a for-profit facility that relies heavily on Medicaid funding in its quest for revenue. Failure to receive those funds would be extremely damaging to the facility's survival.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti fully support all federal efforts that hold our nursing homes accountable for the care that they provided. Many fail to realize that the funds used to pay for the care of many nursing home residents come directly from the government in the form of Medicare and Medicaid payments. That means that it is the taxpayers who foot the bill for these facilities. In that way, inadequate and fraudulent care at these facilities is not only a problem for the abused resident, but also a swindling of everyone's hard-earned tax dollars.

Whether you have family member at a failing nursing home or are just a concerned citizen, we encourage everyone to seek out trained legal professionals if they suspect substandard nursing home care. The proper treatment of our elderly resident can never be compromised.

A new Associated Press report describes a horrific example elder abuse involving the dehumanization of elderly residents at nursing home.

Authorities recently arrested six employees at the Valley View Skilled Nursing Facility in Ukiah, California for a grotesque “joke” involving the inhumane abuse of the residents in their care. The employees allegedly covered several residents with a slippery cream. The purpose was to “grease” the residents so that their co-workers would have a difficult time handling the residents when providing basic care, like using the restroom and moving from one location to another.
The abused residents suffered from dementia and were therefore unable to speak up for themselves.

The possibility for physical injury from slipping and falling alone is enough to jolt anyone’s sense of compassion. But the extreme disregard for the humanity and dignity of the residents is perhaps even more disturbing.

No words can properly describe the callous, calculated, disgusting treatment of elderly residents by the very people charged with their care. What is perhaps most shocking is that the incident involved not one, but six separate employees at the nursing home. Facilities often claim that abuse only occurs rarely and is caused by isolated, renegade individuals. However, as this example demonstrates, many nursing homes fosters a culture in which many employees feel that treating their residents as inanimate objects is acceptable behavior.

Stories like these are exactly why our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti spend every day fighting for the rights of abused and neglected elderly residents. There are thousands of other seniors stuck in homes just like Valley View who have no one standing up for them when they are treated like objects to be laughed at. Our nursing home attorneys will continue to provide a voice for residents. Please contact our office if you suspect any mistreatment at a nursing home near you.

Three weeks ago we posted a story on the closing statements of a high profile trial involving nursing home negligence at several of the homes owned by Skilled HealthCare based out of California. The Contra Costa Times reports that yesterday the jury in the case finally returned a verdict, finding against the nursing home and awarding a staggering $677 million dollars in damages.

The case was a class-action, with the plaintiffs representing an estimated 32,000 residents who were given inadequate nursing treatment by the negligent nursing homes owned by Skilled HealthCare. The case revolved around the number of hours per day of qualified nursing care each resident received. State law requires that 3.2 hours of care be given each day, but records indicate that the nursing homes were falling far below that number for at least six years from 2003 to 2009.

Overall, the jury awarded the maximum amount possible to the aggrieved class of victims, ultimately totaling over $670 million dollars. That figure includes $58 million in damages for violation of the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act. It is clear from the jury’s verdict that they were appalled by the blatant disregard for the law exhibited by administrators at these facilities. As the nursing home abuse attorney commented after the verdict, “This is a really strong statement to Skilled HealthCare that they have to follow the law. They need to know that they are going to be held responsible.”

It may seem shocking that one of the largest nursing home chains in the country like Skilled Healthcare, which operates homes in seven states, would repeatedly violate nursing home laws. However, systematic negligent and law-breaking are all too common occurrences at nursing home facilities. The abuse continues at these homes until victims finally stand up for their rights and seek representation to hold the abusers responsible. Large money-making institutions like nursing home chains will often never make big changes to improve resident care unless they are forced to do so by fierce nursing home care advocates.

That is why our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti encourage you to seek out qualified legal representation if you suspect any mistreatment at a local nursing home. Every day that you delay may mean one more senior suffers abuse at the hands of negligent and inadequate caregivers.

WKYT News reported yesterday on the conclusion of a nursing home negligence trial. The jury ultimately determined that an aide at the Hillcrest Center was responsible abusing resident Grace Fugate.

Ms. Fugate was 67 in July of 2003 when she first entered the care of healthcare workers at Hillcrest for what was scheduled to be a short stay to recover from knee surgery. Only a month later, Ms. Fugate told a nursing aide that she needed assistance to use the restroom. Shockingly, the aide refused to assist Grace, claiming that she was busy and didn’t have time to help Grace go to the bathroom. The aide told her to get up and go to the bathroom on her own.

Grace eventually attempted to move and reach the restroom herself. Her still mending knee could not handle the strain, however, and she ended up falling. She eventually lost so much blood after the fall that she had to be resuscitated at a local hospital. The fall traumatized the recovering knee even further, leading to its amputation six years later.

Over the course of the trial the jury also heard how the aide who refused to help was uncertified and had a history of poor work habits. Grace’s attorney confessed that he suspected the aide had been angry because she had recently been written up for poor performance, and she took out her anger on Ms. Fugate.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti support Grace’s fight for vindication for the elder abuse she suffered. Elderly residents at nursing home facilities are often in fragile states, meaning that even simple acts of negligence commonly lead to serious harm. Often the negligence involves failing to properly monitor a resident, like a case we settled for $1.5 million involving an aide’s failure to supervise a resident’s smoking, leading to severe burns. However, sometimes the abuse is even more egregious, like in Ms. Fugate’s case, where an untrained nursing home worker actively refuses to provide the care to which for which he or she is being paid.

In either case, nursing home lawyers should be contacted immediately to ensure that the victim is protected and future abuse is limited.

The Gazette, a publication of the Consumer Voice and National Long-Term Ombudsman Resource Center, recently released a newsletter that discussed severe deficiencies in the Kentucky nursing home system.

The article noted that over 200 deficiencies have been found in the state’s nursing home system since the beginning of the year alone. The problems included a wide range of nursing home negligence from lacking certain safeguards to protect against abuse to failing to properly dispose of garbage.

What is especially disheartening is that seven of the nursing homes had seven or more deficiencies. That means that certain homes are continually flaunting the proper standards of care repeatedly, leaving residents open to sever injury, neglect, and abuse. Overall, upwards of 90% of nursing homes in the state were be failing state and federal requirements of care in one capacity or another.

Luckily, the federal Department of Health and Human Services mandates that surveys be taken across at least once every 15 months at nursing home facilities to determine the level of compliance with the law. However, the discouraging results make clear the work that still needs to be done to ensure that these facilities provide the senior residents the care that the law demands.

In Illinois, the situation may be even worse than in Kentucky. While the violations in Kentucky did not reach the level requiring nursing homes to be closed, several Illinois homes were recently slated for closure. Those Illinois nursing homes, including the Evergreen Health Center in Evergreen Park were found to have committed abuses so flagrantly and consistently that the only solution was to ensure that they stopped harming any future residents.

In fact, our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti are currently fighting for the rights of a victim of Evergreen Park negligence. We have seen the fatal consequences of nursing home abuse and neglect, and understand that the only solution is consistent vigilance and oversight. If you suspect any improper care at a local nursing home, be sure to contact a nursing home lawyer immediately.

The family of a man who tragically died of a morphine overdose due to nursing home abuse has recently been awarded nearly $5 million, reports The Toledo Blade. Burr Needham entered the Mercy Memorial Nursing Center in late April of 2002 to receive physical therapy for a nondisplaced hip fracture. However, only a week and a half later, Mr. Needham was found dead at the nursing home from a morphine overdose.

The medical examiner concluded that the death was caused by acute morphine intoxication and ruled it a homicide. Mr. Needham’s family hired nursing home abuse lawyers who investigated further and field suit. The investigation soon made clear that the nursing home staff had failed to properly monitor the amount of morphine given to Mr. Needham in his brief stay at their facility. The nursing home records revealed that morphine was unaccounted for on his medical chart.

The nursing home abuse trial abuse resulting from the death lasted over three weeks. The jury eventually determined that Mercy Memorial Nursing Center was professionally negligent in Mr. Needham’s care and treatment. They awarded his widow nearly $3 million for loss of companionship, $1.5 million for pain and suffering, and $350,000 for damages and lost valuables.

The deadly consequences of the nursing home abuse in this case is a stark reminder of the perilous situation many vulnerable seniors face when forced to live in facilities that fail to provide the care they need. However, Mr. Needham’s family was able to receive some vindication and send a message to the abusers who took their loved one by seeking expert legal help and ensuring that their rights were protected. In Chicago, our nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti represent suffering families like the Needhams each day. If you are someone you know may be victims of medication error in a nursing home or another similar situation, do not wait to see if nursing home negligence has occurred, contact a lawyer today.

The Globe Gazette recently reported on a new lawsuit alleging nursing home negligence by the Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea. The suit charges nursing home staff with failure to properly supervise four teenage certified nursing assistants alleged to have committed a wide-range of abuses on their elderly residents.

The abuse was carried out unabated over the course of four to six months. It included sexual groping of the residents and repeated physical beatings. The teenage assistants also went so far as to explain to one particular resident that the facility was actually a prison in an attempt to confuse and torment the mentally impaired elderly victim.

This is the fourth lawsuit stemming from the elder abuse at this facility. Police reports indicate that 15 residents with Alzheimer’s disease were abused by the four nursing home staff members. In each case the victims have charged the nursing home with failure to screen employees and failure to supervise their actions to prevent abuse and neglect.

The physical dependence of residents at these facilities makes them especially vulnerable to both physical and sexual assault. The patients in these cases had severe cognitive impairments, making it difficult for them to explain the extent of the abuse. It is for that reason that administrators at these facilities must be especially diligent in screening all potential employees. Once hired, administrators must ensure that employees are properly trained to provide adequate care for elderly residents and closely monitored to ensure that no abuse or neglect occurs. Their failure to do so can have devastating effects, as seen in these cases in Albert Lea.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti know the price of nursing home abuse and neglect all too well. We have filed suit and won numerous multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for Illinois elder abuse victims and their families at the hands of unsupervised, untrained, and unmonitored nursing home staff. Be sure to contact a nursing home lawyer if you suspect a loved one is a victim of this type of negligence.

A caregiver at a North Carolina nursing home was charged with murdering Rachel Holliday, an 84-year-old Alzheimer’s nursing home resident, with morphine. The nursing home caregiver, Angela Almore, also faces charges of felony abuse, which are related to the hospitalization of six other Alzheimer’s patients whom authorities suspect she also gave morphine. This investigation began when authorities suspected abuse after the Alzheimer’s patients tested positive for morphine. The State believes that the patients were likely given morphine to make them more manageable.

Overmedication is a problem that arises too often in nursing homes. An October report in the Chicago Tribune investigated this issue, finding that nursing home staff will resort to overmedicating their residents in order to make it easier to manage them. This usually stems from nursing homes being understaffed or insufficiently trained to handle the complex needs of residents with dementia. Of course, this decision to overmedicate, or to medicate without a physician’s order, is against the standard of care. Further, overmedicating residents in nursing homes can have potentially detrimental effects on their health, and can deteriorate their fragile and vulnerable nature. As evidenced by the article mentioned above, and many similar cases throughout the country, overmedication can and does cause death in nursing home residents.

Our attorneys at Levin & Perconti are very familiar with the effects of overmedicating nursing home residents. Most recently, one of our attorneys, Partner, Steve Levin, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the licensee of Woodstock Residence, in Woodstock, IL, a former nurse, and former nursing director, for administering a heavy dose of morphine that caused the premature death of a resident.

A major class-action lawsuit alleging nursing home abuse and neglect is drawing to a close this week in California. The suit challenges the care provided by one of the nation’s largest nursing home chains, Skilled HealthCare Group, Inc., a group that owns and operates 22 nursing homes in several states. As many as 32,000 patients may have suffered as a resulf of the nursing home group's patterns of negligence.

Skilled HealthCare is alleged to have provided inadequate staffing levels at several of their facilities over a six year period. Evidence has indicated that Skilled HealthCare fell short of the 3.2 hours of direct resident care per day mandated by state law. That care is supposed to include the vital services of registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, and certified nursing assistants. The result of those years of neglect meant that residents were forced to sit in soiled bed sheets for days, walk around with catheters dragging on the ground, and have pressure wounds left untreated. The total amount of suffering by the residents at those facilities will likely never be fully known.

The case is a striking reminder of how widespread nursing home abuse remains across the country and the need to keep a vigilant eye on the care of all residents of these facilities. Elder neglect and abuse abounds when these facilities focus more on squeezing the budget instead of providing the legally mandated care that residents and taxpayers are entitled. All too often these abuses go unreported and the neglect continues. A District Attorney involved in the Skilled HealthCare class-action suit acknowledged that this nursing home abuse was a “long-term problem” and that there was “overwhelming evidence that the law has been broken.”

The Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti have fought similar elder abuse battles, protecting residents from all forms of nursing home neglect. They will remain even more vigilant in the coming months, as Illinois Governor Pat Quinn moves to sign a bill that will increase the required care per resident at Illinois facilities to 3.8 hours a day. It is vital that you contact an elder abuse attorney if you suspect any violation to ensure these laws are followed.

To learn more about this nursing home abuse lawsuit, please click the link.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Illinois health authorities have initiated the process to revoke the nursing home license of Evergreen Health Care Center in Evergreen Park, Illinois. This move comes after Evergreen received numerous citations for serious resident neglect. These citations include, failure to notify a doctor when a 90 year old patient suffering from pneumonia’s health worsened and again failure by the Evergreen staff to notify a doctor of a patient’s abnormal laboratory reports resulting in that patient’s death. The nursing home was also cited in August 2009 for failure to prevent maggots from infecting the scalp wound of a patient.

Additionally, in response to various safety breaches that were cited following inspections of the nursing home, Evergreen was added to the Federal Special Focus Facility List. The list is comprised of the nation’s most troubled nursing homes that have a history of serious quality issues. The list is part of a special program that aims to stimulate improvements in the nursing home’s quality of care.

According to State law, Evergreen can either voluntarily surrender their license or contest the revocation and request a hearing before an administrative law judge. Other Chicago facilities facing license revocation include Columbus Manor Residential Care Home, Rainbow Beach Care Center, Regal Health and Rehabilitation Center and Fox River Pavilion.

Our attorneys at Levin & Perconti are well aware of the problems at Evergreen. Most recently, two of our nursing home attorneys filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against Evergreen for failure to prevent, monitor and treat several pressure sores that contributed to the death of a 77 year old patient. However, as our attorneys are well aware, problems such as these are not limited to Evergeen, but are prevalent in various nursing homes across the nation. We have filed a myriad of lawsuits against nursing homes for negligent care, including failure to prevent falls, unexplained bruises, excessive use of sedatives, rapid weight loss, etc.

On June 15, 2010, we honored the 5th Annual World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. In 2006, The International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse allied with groups around the world to advance the public’s knowledge of the perils that face our older population.

According to the White House Blog, elder abuse, neglect, or self-neglect is a problem that affects between 700,000 to 3.5 million Americans every year. Those mistreated elders are 300% more likely to experience premature death than those who are not harmed. In addition to abuse by relatives and friends, nursing home abuse and neglect accounts for a large portion of these injuries. A disproportionate amount of victims are females. Many forms of elder abuse are recognized as types of domestic violence. In 2006, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) apportioned funds to help these victims. However, only 1% of the VAWA funds are dedicated to older women.

Research has shown that elder abuse, neglect or exploitation is significantly under-reported and under-identified. As little as 1 in 6 cases are reported to authorities. Due to the high number of victims, it is crucial that this problem is highlighted for people to understand the extent of the problem. There were global observations of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, including here in Chicago, Illinois.

The National Center for State Courts has created a new website, Centers for Elders and the Courts, to focus attention on this topic. The website educates and provides resources for anyone wanting to know more about state laws, guardianship, aging issues and elder abuse.

Although World Elder Abuse Day has passed, we believe it is important to raise awareness surrounding elder abuse year round and encourage every person to acknowledge this issue. If you suspect that someone you know has been a victim of elder abuse at the hands of a nursing home, assisted living facility or home health provider, contact a Chicago elder abuse lawyer to discuss the possible case.

An article on the Chicago Tribune website reported that a former nursing assistant at The Moorings, a nursing home in Arlington Heights, was sentenced to five years in prison for theft after she stole $6,070 from an elderly resident’s bank account. The former employee obtained the victim’s banking information while she worked at the nursing home in 2008. For the full article on nursing home financial abuse, click on the link.

There are many forms of elder abuse, and financial exploitation is one form that has become a growing problem. Financial exploitation occurs when a person in a position of power or trust takes advantage of an elderly person in order to gain access to their money, property, or other assets. Nursing home residents are particularly susceptible to financial exploitation because as elderly or dependent people, they rely on others to care for them. Signs of financial exploitation include any activity that is inconsistent with the elder’s ability, such as making withdrawals from an ATM when physically incapable of doing so, increased withdrawals or activity on credit cards, and changes in account beneficiaries.

With an estimation of more than 1 in 10 seniors experiencing elder abuse or mistreatment just this past year in the United States, this report of financial elder abuse comes as we recognize World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. It is important to spread information and awareness in order to combat the epidemic of elder abuse.

For more information about elder abuse, visit the National Center on Elder Abuse website.

If you know or suspect that a loved one has been financially exploited at a nursing home, please contact a Chicago nursing home attorney.

The Madison/St. Clair Record is reporting that the administrator of a victim’s estate has filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against an Illinois facility in Belleville called the Lincoln Home. The nursing home lawsuit alleges that the woman suffered a broken thigh bone while a resident at the nursing home. The complaint states that the nursing home employees were continuously violated her rights until her death. The victim had sustained a comminuted left femur fracture while she stayed at the nursing home which caused her repeated pain, mental anguish and emotional distress. The Chicago injury attorneys at Levin & Perconti have previously filed a lawsuit against the Lincoln Home after the home neglected to prevent a victim from falling.

The nursing home lawsuit claims that the home failed to evaluate Lockett to ensure she received adequate supervision, failed to provide her with adequate care, failed to provide her with immediate treatment by trained personnel, failed to notify her physician of significant changes in her physical condition, failed to ensure that they established a nursing care plan based on her needs, failed to provide necessary services to maintain Lockett's highest state of well-being and failed to appropriately update her plan following her fracture.

Weiss Management, which owned The Lincoln Home, also allegedly performed a number of negligent acts, including its failure to operate the home in such a way that provided Lockett with adequate supervision, its failure to operate the home in such a way as to protect Lockett from neglect, its failure to properly monitor its employees and staff, its failure to screen and evaluate the references of nursing staff, its failure to terminate employees at the home who were known to be careless and incompetent, its failure to provide nursing personnel duties consistent with their education, its failure to prevent and correct problems at the nursing home and its failure to discharge its legal obligations. To read more about this nursing home abuse case, please click the link.

Pressure-related injuries are a common problem in elderly residents living in nursing homes, due to the fact that many nursing home residents are immobile or have limited mobility. Oftentimes, these residents cannot turn themselves on a regular basis or reposition themselves easily. When a person stays in one position for a signficant period of time, the constant pressure cuts off circulation and this causes tissue to die. The most common areas that pressure sores form are on a person's elbows, sacrum, hips, ankles and heels. According to a Center for Disease Control study that surveyed over 1500 nursing homes in 2004, with the findings released in 2009, over eleven percent of all nursing home residents suffered from a pressure sore of some stage.

It is easier to prevent a pressure sore than to treat one that has already formed. Therefore, it is crucial for nursing home staff to employ measures to prevent residents from forming sores in the first place. When a nursing home resident is admitted to a facility, they are assessed to determine their risk for bed sores. If a resident is deemed to be at high-risk for developing pressure sores, nursing home staff members must develop a plan to address this risk and implement the plan accordingly in order to prevent sores.

If a resident is at-risk, a nursing home should perform daily skin-checks to monitor the resident's skin integrity to determine whether the resident's skin is intact. A nursing home may also use devices, such as pressure-relieving pads and mattresses, to reduce pressure to bony prominences. In addition to devices, nursing home staff must turn and reposition at-risk residents every few hours and ensure that their skin is clean and dry. Moisture and unsanitary conditions increase the chances of developing sores, so it is important for staff to clean residents thoroughly after bladder or bowel movements and make sure the area is completely dry. Residents must also stay well-nourished and hydrated. Malnutrition heightens the risk for pressure ulcers and slows the healing process.

Although nursing home staff members should be well-trained to address a resident's risk, residents often fall victim to pressure sores. If not identified and treated in a timely manner, pressure sores can worsen and become infected. In many instances, residents die of complications when their blood becomes infected as a result of a pressure sore. If a nursing home takes all the proper steps to prevent and treat pressure sores and one still forms, it may have been unavoidable. However, sometimes nursing home staff members and physicians fail to follow the standard of care for treating at-risk residents. When a resident suffers injury or death as a result of a nursing home negligence, the facility may be held liable for its actions.

Illinois nursing home residents who have suffered serious pressure sores and related injury or death in facilities throughout the state may be entitled to seek compensation for their suffering. If you have a loved one living in an Illinois nursing home who has developed pressure ulcers, it is important to first seek medical treatment of the wounds. If you believe that the injuries are a result of neglect, contact a nursing home lawyer to discuss your potential claim. Our experienced team is happy to evaluate your claim and advise you on your legal options.