July 9, 2011

Nursing Home Attorneys File Suit Against Understaffed Facilities

All across the country, nursing homes are being run with less than the optimum number of staff. They are being understaffed in a hope to cut costs and increase profits. When nursing homes fail to properly staff their facilities, the chance of accidents and mistakes greatly increases. State and Federal laws set a minimum standard that nursing homes must comply with. The problems arise when facilities choose to ignore these government regulations.

People choose to go to nursing homes not because they want to, but because they are at a point in their lives where they need more care and attention than can otherwise be provdided to them. Many nursing home residents have been finding out that the nursing homes promise to provide them the care and treatment they need is often a fabrication. The nursing homes that choose to understaff their facilities have been rewarded with large profits by failing to provide the required number of nursing hours and as a result, patients of these homes have not received adequate care.

Some problems that can occur when a facility is understaffed are falls, pressure sores, dehydration and malnutrition, all of which stem from an overall lack of quality care and attention. It is easy to blame the staff of the nursing home when problems arise, but in reality the staff is often doing the best it can with the resources it is provided. If there are not enough staff members to provide supervision for the residents who are at risk for falls then it is likely a resident will fall, and it is no stretch of the imagination to assume that if there are not enough staff members to turn and reposition residents who are at risk for the development of pressure sores, that a resident will eventually develop pressure sores.

It is not the nurse’s fault that these injuries are occurring; a nurse can only care for so many residents at once. The facilities are setting their staff up for failure. Without adequate staffing, it is impossible for any resident to truly get the care and treatment they need. Owners of the nursing homes need to stop choosing profits over people and people need to start demanding better nursing home care.

The nursing home attorneys at Levin and Perconti have been fighting against facilities that understaff their Illinois nursing homes. Many residents of nursing homes have come to Levin and Perconti after suffering an injury, only to find out that one of the main reasons that the injury occurred was because the facility they were at was understaffed. Hopefully, the civil liability that these homes are opening themselves up to by understaffing will be enough of a deterrent to stop them from doing so in the future.

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Posted In: Bad nursing homes, Chicago Nursing Homes, Failure to supervise, Incidents, Legislation, Nursing Home Abuse, Pressure Ulcers, Staffing Issues

March 13, 2011

Illinois Lawsuit Affecting Seniors Ends with $68.5 Million Settlement

The Los Angeles Times reported this weekend an agreement reached with the large pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca following a multistate drug lawsuit.

The Illinois drug lawsuit stemmed from apparent “off label” use of the drug Seroquel. The drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults. However, the drug has been used to treat children and the elderly with those conditions as well as adults with a variety of ailments, anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Doctors are allowed to prescribe medications for “off label” purposes, but drug companies are prohibited from marketing their products for those non-approved uses. However, the marketing issue was not the only problem. The Illinois attorney general, along with investigators from other states, discovered that the large pharmaceutical giant was failing to disclose the drugs’ potential side effects—hyperglycemia, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and weight gain.

The pair of problems placed many seniors at risk of suffering unknown complications from the drug.

According to the settlement reached by the company with 35 states, AstraZeneca agreed to pay $68.5 million. They will also change their marketing format and properly disclose side-effects so as not to violate the law. This latest agreement comes on the heels of a similar settlement reached by the company with the U.S. government. Last April, AstraZeneca agreed to pay $520 million for its “off label” marketing of Seroquel.

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Posted In: Incidents

January 30, 2011

Unsafe Conditions Leads to Illinois Nursing Home Death

The Madison St. Clair Record reported earlier this week on a nursing home lawsuit filed by the family of a resident killed because of unsafe conditions at the Cambridge House of O’Fallon.

The suit alleges that the victim, an elderly female resident, was walking in the facility’s hallway when she tripped on a phone cord. The cord came from a nurse’s station nearby. The dangerous tripping hazard was stretched across the hallway, and it was not secured in any way. Obviously with many elderly residents walking in the area, the danger posed by the loose cord was obvious.

Unfortunately for the victim in this case, the fall caused severe injury—fracturing her spine. Her overall health deteriorated quickly following the incident. Before recovering in any way from the fall, the woman caught pneumonia. In her weakened condition her body had little chance of fighting off the illness. She died shortly afterward

The family of the victim filed this Illinois nursing home lawsuit at the end of December last year. They are seeking to hold the negligent facility accountable for the careless behavior that led to the death.

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Posted In: Incidents

December 6, 2010

Nursing Home Worker Charged With Sexually Abusing 91-Year-Old Resident

Few instances of abuse appall the senses more than sexual aggression taken out on a vulnerable nursing home resident. All those who care about proper treatment of elderly friends and family members would naturally be shocked to learn that their loved one was forced into compromising sexual situations because of improper care by nursing home employees. Yet, too often, that is exactly what happens.

The Lufkin Daily News reported this weekend on a situation of attempted sexual and physical abuse of a nursing home resident. A 25 year old employee at Castle Pines Nursing Home was arrested this weekend for his conduct. According to reports, the employee approached a 91 year old woman with his genitals exposed. He then told the woman to grab him inappropriately. Luckily the woman was capable of denying the request. But the staff member became angry with the victim’s denial. As a result he slammed her down, causing injury to her hip and buttocks.

As disturbing as the event sounds, it is fortunate that it was not worse. Many residents are not capable of resisting demands from the nursing home employees charged with their care. Physical and mental deficiencies often mean that the resident is forced to endure any action—many times the perpetrator is never punished for their conduct.

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November 30, 2010

Allegation of Elder Abuse Investigated By State Department

The Lehigh Acres Citizen reports on a state Department of Children and Families that is taking a look at allegations of abuse at a local nursing home. Two nursing home residents have reportedly been recent victims of abuse at the Clare Bridge of Cape Coral facility.

According to police reports, a nursing assistant at the facility may be guilty of physically abusing residents at the nursing home. The allegations first came to light when relatives of one of the victims noticed bruises on the man’s face and nose. The official explanation was that the victim had fallen off a couch. However, other indications suggest that the injuries were actually a result of a punch to the face that eventually required hospitalization.

One employee is said to have provided a notarized statement about the abuse but backtracked following fears of losing her job. The staff member claimed that another employee was fired shortly after coming forward with abuse allegations.

Allegations of abuse and neglect are not new to the facility. In the last year alone, four different deficiencies of care have been uncovered by state agencies. Three specific inspections were conducted by authorities following complaints of abuse in that same time period.

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Posted In: Incidents

November 27, 2010

Norovirus Affects 129 Residents in McHenry County Nursing Homes

The Chicago Sun-Times recently published a story exploring a growing a problem of contagious illness striking nursing home residents near Chicago.

Reports indicate that at least 129 nursing home residents have been infected with the stomach illness known as norovirus in recent days. At least six of those residents have been sent to the hospital for more advanced treatment following their contraction. Norovirus is a viral infection that causes vomiting, fever, and diarrhea.

The virus is often difficult to stop. It is capable of living for days on doorknobs, railings, elevators buttons and all surfaces that are often touched. The virus is resistant to cold and heat so it is capable of surviving in many situations.

The virus typically strikes in areas where many people are found living and working in close quarters. That is particularly true with those whose immune systems are weak—the young and the old. For those reasons nursing homes and schools are common breeding grounds for quick spreading of the illness.

One key to stopping the spread is cleanliness. Hand washing and other basic actions are often the main methods of stopping the spread of the problem.

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November 19, 2010

Nursing Home Allows Dementia Resident To Wander Leading To Her Death

Mercury News reported on Wednesday on a new lawsuit filed against a negligent nursing home. The victimized resident was brought to Sunshine Villa Assisted Living in April. She suffered from dementia, which was one of the main reasons why her sons felt she needed close care at an assisted living facility. In addition, the 74 year old resident liked to take walks, so her son paid additional money for a monitoring device known as a WanderGuard to cut down the risk of his mother unknowingly getting herself into trouble.

Her two sons made the nursing home staff members perfectly aware that their mother’s walking habit with dementia made it vital that she be closely watched. His mother was nervous when she arrived on the first day; she expressed concerns about wanting to leave. Her sons considered taking her back, but they were reassured by nursing home staff that good care would be taken of their loved one. The sons stayed with their mother for most of the first day to reassure her—leaving the facility around 5pm. The last time anyone saw her alive was a half hour later at 5:30pm.

The resident was unaccounted for the next five hours. It wasn’t until 10:30pm that nursing home staff members discovered she was missing. They called her sons, and a search was conducted. The resident was missing for three days. She was eventually found dead outside in the community. She had suffered from hypothermia and exposure.

It is clear that the nursing home failed on multiple fronts to provide the care the dementia resident needed in this case. They failed to ensure that the resident was wearing her monitoring device, didn’t have auditory monitoring devices on the exits, improperly trained staff to prevent wandering, and didn’t have any set plans or policies to handle dementia patient risks.

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November 14, 2010

Health & Human Services Agency To Provide Millions to Prevent Nursing Home Infections

McKnight’s News recently reported on funding developments at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that will provide support for groups seeking to improve the quality of care at nursing homes. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality said it will give $34 million to different research projects working to prevent medical-care-associated infections at nursing homes and similar facilities.

The funding project is a joint effort from the Health & Human Services Agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, National Institute of Health, and others. The impetus for the research is the realization that while there is growing information about the spread of infections in hospitals, there is much less knowledge of the spread of these infections at long-term care facilities like nursing homes.

As the director of the managing agency explained, “With these new projects we can apply what has worked in reducing infections in hospitals to other settings and ultimately help patients feel confident that they are in safe hands.”

The need for improvements in this area is well-documents. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that over 2 million cases of these types of infections strike residents each year—leading to over 100,000 deaths. These are infections that a patient contracts while at a facility due to the contagious nature of many of these spaces. In other words, bring many sick individuals together in one place makes it vital for a facility to take extreme precautions so that the one patient’s sickness does not spread to others. For too often residents seem to be on the road to recovery from other ailments until they contract an infection while at a long-term care facility. The complications from those nursing home infections are often deadly.

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October 25, 2010

New Superbug Risk for Nursing Home Residents

Nursing homes often pose unique risks for bacteria outbreaks because of the close proximity in which many sick residents live. For that reason, our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti know that the professionals who run these facilities must take all precautions possible to ensure that residents remain safe and healthy at all times.

The Chicago Tribune recently profiled a new type of bacteria that is spreading in many local facilities, including nursing homes, that is presenting particularly challenging problems for doctors. The new superbug is resistant to even the most powerful antibiotics. The bacterium, known as KPC, was first reported 11years ago.

However earlier this year, the bug began popping up at facilities areas our area. Of particular concern to experts is the fact that the bacterium has sprung up in a variety of different locations, meaning that the chance for mass outbreak is larger. The bacteria live in the gut of a patients and often enter the body through intravenous catheters or through the urinary tract and blood vessels of sick patients.

Earlier this year an outbreak of KPC in Brazil killed 18 patients.

About 40% of the patients who contract KPC ultimately die from the bacteria. That number may be higher for vulnerable seniors whose bodies often struggle when fighting off medical problems—their immune systems are much more easily compromised. As it now stands over 75% of patients identified with the bacteria were in nursing homes or long-term care facilities. If you or someone you know resides in a nursing facility, please be on extra alert for signs of contraction of KPC. The costs are too high to ignore.

Please Click Here to read more about this growing nursing home problem.

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October 24, 2010

Critical Information Often Not Shared Between Nursing Home and Hospital

The Wall Street Journal blog recently explained a frequent and little known problem facing many nursing home residents who need emergency medical care: miscommunication between nursing home staff and hospitals.

A new Joint Commission study explains that far too often one medical provider (such as a nursing home) fails to adequately share vital medical information about the patient. For example, when a resident is rushed to the emergency room, it is vital that the ER staff be made aware of drug allergies from which the resident suffers. This basic sharing of information is often the difference between life and death.

However, that information sharing often does not occur. The latest study found that over 37% of these transfers were defective, with certain information not being shared correctly. With thousands of transfers occurring every day, the effect of these errors is astounding. In fact, some experts believe that these deficiencies are the cause over about 80% of all medical mistakes.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti are committed to holding all professionals accountable for the care provided to vulnerable seniors. Under no circumstances should a resident die or suffer severe complications because their nursing home caregivers fail to share important information when being transferred to other caregivers. The transfer of residents to emergency rooms is a very frequent occurrence; therefore nursing home staff should be well-versed in protocols that share important, life-saving information to hospital personnel.

If you or someone you know may have been at victim of miscommunication between a nursing home and a local hospital, please contact a nursing home lawyer to learn more about the legal options.

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October 15, 2010

Fear Of Falling Itself Leads to Increase In Accidents

A new report by the Journal Watch has recently released information that is important for all nursing home residents and those interested in their care and safety. The report explains that both perceived and physiological risks are factors that affect the actual risk the certain seniors will suffer harmful falls.

The findings suggest that even seniors that pose no obvious signs of fall risks may actually fear that they are at risk. As a result of that risk, they actually do fall. As many as 11% of residents in the study were found to have little actual physical risk of fall but high perceived risk. Women, more depressed residents, and those with higher neuroticism rates area all more likely to experience the disconnect. That group was ultimately found to suffer more harmful falls than those who did not belief that the risk of a fall was high.

The organizers of the study explain that the take away from the research is a call to action for clinicians to help take the fear of falling away from vulnerable seniors and for care workers to help assist the problem.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti have long worked on behalf of victims of tragic nursing home falls. The consequences of these types of accident range from broken bones to death. As this new information suggests, nursing home employees need to be even more vigilant regarding the steps taken to ensure that residents are protected from these dangerous accidents as much as possible. Even slight deviations from the basic standard of care may allow a deadly fall to occur which otherwise would have been prevented. If you or someone you know has fallen at a senior living community, contact a nursing home lawyer to learn what can be done.

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October 14, 2010

DePuy Hip Replacement Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Senior

News continues to roll in about the far-reaching consequences of the problematic implants used in thousands of hip replacements in recent years. The NBALaw Blog discussed another DePuy hip replacement lawsuit that was recently filed following complications that an elderly woman suffered after her hip replacement.

Of course many nursing home residents and other seniors received hip replacements recently in hopes of increasing their mobility. However, when the devices for the procedure are defective than not only does mobility eventually deteriorate, but the victim suffers damaging medical complications. Because of the possibility of long-term problems with these defective implants, it is important to for all seniors who may have received one of these implants during hip replacement to contact a DePuy recall lawyer as soon as possible.

As previously mentioned on this blog, the worldwide recall affects the company’s ASR XL Acetabular System and ASR Hip Resurfacing System. Both ASR Systems pose the risk of loosening or dislocating following implantation leading to pain, bone fracture, and swelling. In addition, the metal-on-metal movement of the ball and socket system can send metal debris into the patient’s body resulting in a bevy of other problems.

Both of these products were discovered to fail at very high rates, with one out of every eight patients who received one of these devices forced to undergo risky revision surgery within five years. The repeated surgeries is especially dangerous for vulnerable seniors whose bodies are often less able to recover quickly and seamlessly.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti are committed to helping seniors in all circumstances who have suffered because of the negligence, abuse, mismanagement, and poor design of others. With over 90,000 people suffering from potential defective devices we encourage all those who have received these hip replacements or know of others who have received a DePuy replacement, to contact an attorney to understand the legal issues involved and to ensure that proper steps are taken to limit the future harm.

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October 8, 2010

When Nursing Homes Fail to Investigate- A Look at Alden Nursing Homes

It seems that all too often we hear of tragic incidents occurring at Nursing Homes. Today, the Chicago Tribune published an article regarding Alden Village North noting that over the past ten years, Alden has been cited thirteen times for violations in connection to the deaths of its patients.

It is unreasonable to believe that any facility can be perfect in their care, but the types of nursing home neglect that Alden has shown is, in our opinion, inexcusable. The law firm of Levin & Perconti has handled a significant number of cases against Alden for their negligent treatment and care of patients. When negligence occurs, it is important for a facility to investigate the source and correct any problems to mitigate these types of incidents. Alden has been neglecting this part of their duty.

A one-year-old Alden Village North resident who suffered from severe Down syndrome was found in his room “unresponsive and blue” about forty-five minutes after having been fed. There was no one in the room when the child died, and as such Alden was responsible to investigate the cause of the child’s death. In a state investigation, it was found that there was no evidence that the facility reviewed whether proper supervision was provided. The facility was also cited for being understaffed and for not reporting his death to the state health department.

This occurrence was by no means an isolated event. As the Tribune reported, Alden has had several other similar situations occur with similar results. Litigation is often a strong way to persuade a facility to change its ways. The medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti have been attempting to persuade Alden for years and will continue to do so until they are forced to abandon negligently caring for their patients. Hopefully, by making Alden pay for the negligent treatment of their patients, they will be forced to reform their ways and limit the abuse and neglect seemingly rampant at their facilities.

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Posted In: Abuse, Alden Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect, Chicago, Chicago Nursing Home Abuse, How to tell if your nursing home is bad, Incidents, Nursing Home Abuse

October 8, 2010

Neglect Running Rampant in Alden Village North, a Chicago Nursing Home

The nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti have handled all types of abuse and neglect lawsuits against Alden nursing homes throughout Illinois for many years. Today's Chicago Tribune tells the story of at least thirteen children in the Chicago area who fell victim to abuse and neglect at Alden Village North, a nursing home located at 7464 N. Sheridan Road in Chicago.

The Tribune's article exposes the sad truth that abuse and neglect not only happens to the elderly living in Illinois nursing homes, but also to younger residents who require ongoing medical treatment that they cannot receive at home. Parents and family members place their trust with nursing home staff to care for their loved ones, but unfortunately neglect and abuse occur, often due to negligent hiring and short-staffing. One of the victims in the Tribune article was just two years old when he died of asphyxiation because staff at the facility failed to properly monitor his tracheotomy tube for over 3.5 hours. The child had a habit of playing with the tube but staff did nothing to prevent this behavior and did not notify his physician of his actions.

In another sad case, a nine-year-old boy who suffered from severe cognitive deficits died due to nursing home neglect. Staff failed to properly care for his g-tube, failed to notice a change in his condition and failed to communicate these changes to his doctor. As a result, he died from bowel obstruction and an infection at a local hospital.

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Posted In: Abuse, Alden Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect, Chicago Nursing Homes, Compromised Care, Compromised Care: Tribune Investigation, Failure to Report Abuse, Incidents, Nursing Home Abuse, Nursing Home Study, Staffing Issues, Useful publications

October 5, 2010

Resident Choking Remains Dangerous Nursing Home Risk

Yesterday we discussed the importance of proper nutrition at nursing homes. It is vital to remember the basic needs of all of those in nursing homes, and that is highlighted over the next several days during the Consumer Voice sponsored Residents Rights Week.

When thinking about food service at nursing homes, it is also important to remember another dangerous threat for many: choking. This basic concern poses an especially harmful risk for those in many nursing homes who have physical deficiencies which make it difficult to fully swallow certain foods.

There are severe consequences for failing to prevent choking. When a resident is unable to swallow, oxygen is deprived from the brain. That deprivation can cause severe brain damage and even death.

For that reason, it is important for nursing home staff members to provide close supervision to those residents who pose a risk for choking. There are times when choking accidents are purely that—accidental. However, in many instances the choking could have been prevented with proper oversight by nursing home staff members. For many vulnerable seniors and their families, that oversight is exactly what brought them to choose to live in these facilities in the first place.

Our Chicago nursing home attorneys at Levin & Perconti understand the vulnerability of many seniors who live at these long-term care facilities. We have been involved in cases of nursing home choking where neglect was the real cause. That inadequate service often comes from improper oversight during mealtimes or from feeding certain residents the wrong food. In each of those cases, it is imperative that the negligent facility be held responsible for its errors and take steps to correct future problems.

Click Here to learn more about Residents Rights Week 2010.

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September 28, 2010

Nursing Home Residents Tested After Disease Outbreak Scare

A nursing home is testing all of its residents for a potentially deadly disease following a contamination of the facility’s water supply reports Go Erie News.

The Golden Living Center-Walnut Creek admitted last week that Legionella bacteria was found in its water supply. One resident has already been positively diagnosed with the Legionnaires’ disease and several other residents have already shown symptoms—they are being monitored. The rest of the patients of the facility are also being tested to ensure that they did not also fall victim.

The nursing home is currently conducting a sweep of the facility’s water supply in an effort to cleanse the problem away. A company was hired to flush a disinfectant through the pipes. Once that occurs, the next step in handling the issue is installing a copper-silver ionization system to ensure that the bacteria does not return to the facility.

The Center for Disease Control explains that Legionnaires’ disease first appeared in the mid-1970s when a strange outbreak affected 250 patients, ultimately killing 34 of them. The bacteria may incubate in patients for up to two weeks before symptoms appear. As the bacteria advances, it causes problems in the nervous system as well as the gastrointestinal tract. It is most damaging in those with weakened immune systems, like the elderly.

Much like hospitals, nursing homes are often centers were disease and infection run rampant among individuals who are particularly susceptible to health problems. Because of that our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti are well aware of the precautions that all facilities must take to ensure that their residents remain protected. In most cases where these and similar problems occur, nursing home officials claim that the error was an isolated incident that could not have been avoided. However, with some investigation it often becomes clear that the incident should in fact have been stopped if only employees had taken more reasonable precautions or abiding by nursing home laws.

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July 15, 2010

Illinois Resident Files Lawsuit Against Negligent Nursing Home

My Journal Courier reported on a nursing home lawsuit filed by James Niles following the premature 2007 death of his 66 year old mother, Neida Niles. The suit was first filed in Cook County, but the Jacksonville, Illinois based defendants had the case moved downstate to Morgan County.

Neida was a resident of the Prairie Village HealthCare Center in Jacksonville. Mrs. Niles fell while receiving routing dialysis treatment in April 2007. The nursing home is cited for failing to assess her fall risk and taking precautionary steps to limit the risk of a fall. In addition the suit alleges that the negligent nursing home failed to properly treat and limit the progression of pressure ulcers caused by the fall as well as failure to stop a skin infection the developed on her lower extremities.

The suit further argues that the nursing home staff failed to provide the necessary daily skin treatments or properly treat her wounds, ultimately leading to Mrs. Niles death two months after her initial fall. The plaintiff believes that Prairie Village provided inadequate staffing levels and untrained staff which led to the negligent medical care and unnecessary death.

Several other defendants have been named in the lawsuit which was filed as a violation of three Illinois statutes, including the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act.

According to the nursing home quality reports filed at Medicare.gov, the Prairie Village HealthCare Center received the lowest possible rating (much below average) in nursing home staffing and quality indicators. For example, while the average Illinois nursing home resident receives an average of 42 minutes of registered nurse care each day, residents at Prairie Village average only 14 minutes of such care. Also, while an average of 11% of long-term residents in Illinois nursing homes ultimately suffer less mobility while at the health care facility; nearly 27% of Prairie Village long-term residents have less mobility following an extended stay at the facility.

Our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti have fought similar battles against Illinois nursing homes that repeatedly provide inadequate medical care to residents. The negligence occurs in various forms often resulting, as in this case, from inadequate and untrained nursing home care workers. If you know of any victims of similar abuse, please contact a nursing home attorney immediately to help assess the situation.

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June 4, 2010

Lawsuit Claims Illinois Nursing Home Negligent

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.

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Posted In: Illinois Nursing Homes, Incidents, Nursing Home Abuse

June 2, 2010

Illinois Nursing Homes are Facing Reformation

The Chicago Law Bulletin is reporting that Illinois Governor Quinn may soon sign legislation that will greatly reform nursing homes. The bill has already passed both chambers of the legislature was the result of many task forces that were created in response to violence and sexual abuse in the understaffed nursing homes. The bill would increase the required staffing in Illinois’ 1,200 nursing homes to 3.8 hours of nursing care for each resident. Additionally, the licenses fees for nursing homes would increase as well as fines for any nursing homes guilty of nursing home abuse.

The new nursing home legislation would also change the number of inspectors employed at the Illinois Department of Public Health. By 2013 Illinois would be required to employ one inspector for every 300 licensed nursing home beds. Hospitals are also affected. They would be required to initiate criminal background checks before transferring patients who are ambulatory and between 18 and 70 years old to nursing homes for the first time. This provision was implemented because many nursing home residents were physically and sexually abusing other residents in the homes. The problems of mixing those elderly residents with the mentally ill have created many problems. The bill tries to address this by including a pilot program to require expanded fingerprint background checks for those younger residents in mixed homes. This will hopefully put an end to the sexual assaults and batteries that occur at the home.

The Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti applaud the efforts of the Illinois legislature to hold nursing homes more accountable for their actions. The safety of our most vulnerable residents should be a top priority. Hopefully, these measures will be able to prevent nursing home abuse from occurring, and will send a strong message to those nursing homes who continue to commit elderly abuse.

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Posted In: Illinois Nursing Homes, Chicago Nursing Homes, Incidents, Legislation

May 25, 2010

Illinois Nursing Home Sweep Finds Violations

The State Journal-Register is reporting that the Illinois Attorney General’s office has conducted a sweep at the Golden Moments Senior Care Center in Jacksonville, Illinois. This was the 11th sweep of an Illinois nursing home in the past several months. There were five former sex offenders living in the nursing home. The nursing home was targeted because it had not complied with risk assessments for three of these five residents. Although the felons are placed in their own separate rooms, the attorney general’s office believes that this puts the other residents at risk for being abused by the felons. These risk assessments are mandated by state law. To learn more about this Illinois nursing home raid, please check out the link.

This is not the first time that Golden Moments Senior Care Center has been under attack. In February of this year, they were fined for $50,000 for nursing home abuse after the wrongful death of a 74-year-old resident. In this case, the resident choked on food despite staffer’s awareness that he had a risk of choking on food. In 2009, the nursing home was fined $20,000 after the home was accused of failing to keep residents from being mentally, verbally and physically abused. Staff members were causing residents to cry and were slapped in the face.

Nursing homes that have a history of elderly abuse and neglect must be closely watched by government entities. This Jacksonville nursing home has several documented cases of abuse that have spanned a great deal of time. The type of violations that the nursing home has been guilty of has varied a great deal. This shows that the nursing home has difficulties not only keeping track of residents, but their employees as well. If you or a family member have been injured as a result of negligence at Golden Moments or any Illinois nursing home, please consult a Chicago nursing home attorney to discuss your potential claim.

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Posted In: Illinois Nursing Homes, Golden Moments Senior Center, Incidents, Nursing Home Abuse

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