Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

As an indicator of the growing importance of nursing home care and elder care options, national media outlets have begun producing segments that discuss issues related to senior care. This program piece provides some information on home care as an alternative to nursing home care. As instances of nursing home abuse and neglect and elder abuse are on the rise nationally, many families consider bringing elder care home for better results and improved quality.

The workers from various Windsor Healthcare facilities are picketing their respective nursing homes in an attempt to get better wages and working conditions. The staff members claim that their requests are at the benefit of the senior residents. Sporting t-shirts that read “Patients Before Profit” and carrying signs reading “Resident Care is our Priority,” the staff members cite unsafe work conditions, low wages, and poor benefits as the reasons for their picketing. A class-action lawsuit filed against Windsor Healthcare alleges substandard care and neglect of senior residents. Read more here.

A former candidate for attorney general produced this advertisement that discusses nursing home abuse and neglect. This shows that elder abuse issues are gaining in their importance to both voters and politicians as instances of elder abuse and nursing home neglect are on the rise nationwide.

Levin & Perconti has filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit in Cook County on behalf of Michael Tadelman’s daughter and guardian under the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act. The suit was filed on July 22, 2008.

Mr. Tadelman suffered multiple falls while in residency at Abington of Glenview. As a result, he had special designation as a fall risk and the nursing home was required to monitor him closely. Abington of Glenview and its staff failed to care for his needs properly: he suffered multiple falls during his residency.

Read the entire press release here.

In a graphic case of nursing home neglect, a nursing home resident is found with a parasite infestation to his eyes and face. Maggots apparently infested his eyes while he was in the nursing home's care. As a cautionary mark, the news report may be considered graphic to some viewers and should be viewed with appropriate discretion.

More and more states are turning to legislation that would require sex offenders to notify nursing homes and their residents. The need for such legislation comes as nursing homes are accepting an increasing number of mentally handicapped patients, some of who are sex offenders. Specifically, the problem relates more to younger, mentally handicapped patients at nursing homes, not the elderly. However, as the level of care at nursing homes continues to decline, incidents of violent sexual behavior by residents continue to increase.

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An 88-year-old nursing home resident died on June 24 after getting into a fight with his roommate at Desert Life Rehabilitation and Care Center. After the nursing home reported the deadly fight, the state's Department of Health Services initiated its own investigation, but found that the self-report from the home gave no reason to believe the facility had acted negligently. The Department then closed the case. However, the state has reopened it, and the Department of Health Services’ division of licensing is looking into the nursing home death, conducting its own investigation and doing its own interviews. Read more here.

A nursing home employee was arrested yesterday on charges of cashing over $7,600.00 in royalty checks that belonged to a nursing home resident. Bobbie Jo Wilhelm admitted to financially abusing the nursing home resident by forging her signature on the checks and using the money herself. The victim and her family may choose to file a nursing home abuse lawsuit against Wilhelm. To read more, click here.

Steven Levin and John Rushing of Levin & Perconti have filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Levin and Rushing filed the suit on behalf of Mr. James Floyd who suffered at the hands of his nursing home care providers.

Mr. Floyd was a resident at Rest Haven Illiana Christian Convalescent Home in Palos Heights, Illinois. On the day before he would return home, Mr. Floyd’s care was neglected by the nursing home staff. The nursing home knew that he was a high risk for falls but failed to take adequate steps to prevent his falling. As a result of this neglect, Mr. Floyd fell from his bed and broke his hip.

Continue reading "Levin & Perconti Files a Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawsuit against Rest Haven" »

Levin & Perconti has filed a nursing home abuse and neglect and wrongful death lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Levin & Perconti has filed the suit on behalf of Luzella Roberts’s surviving family members under the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act and common law negligence. The suit was filed on July 25, 2008.

Ms. Roberts was a seventy-nine year old dialysis patient. Ms. Roberts’s daughter supervised her care and provided for her medical needs on a daily basis. She entered International Village, a long term care facility on Chicago’s southwest side, intending to stay for a ten day respite stay to give her daughter a short break. Instead, International Village and its dialysis contractor caused her death.

Continue reading "Levin & Perconti Files a Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawsuit" »

A woman who was suspicious of her father's in home care installed hidden video cameras. She soon found actual video evidence of her father's caretaker abusing him physically. Nursing home abuse and neglect can be discovered using hidden videos which help to provide strong evidence of nursing home physical abuse.

Steven M. Levin was once again recognized as a leading authority on nursing home abuse and neglect. In an interview with Lawyers and Settlements, Levin discussed the state of the nursing home industry and the role litigation plays in defining the limits of acceptable behavior. The article focuses on Levin’s success with Levin & Perconti in procuring record judgments and settlements against nursing homes for violations of the standard of care. Levin also discussed the fact that, instead of addressing the main cause of nursing home issues - namely understaffing, facilities are adjusting their governance structure to avoid liability. This would only further deteriorate the struggling nursing home industry.

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Two brothers who owned a nursing home have plead guilty to charges of medical assistance fraud, conspiracy, embezzlement, and neglect of patients. The brothers have admitted to using Medicaid funds for personal use, instead of spending them on nursing home care. As a result, they failed to provide their nursing home residents with food, medicine, bed linens, and sanitary conditions. They also stole $82,000 from the Patients Needs Accounts at three nursing homes. Read more here.

A new study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that an influenza pandemic would be disastrous for United States nursing homes. Apparently, nursing homes are ill-equipped to fight the infection on a large scale. The study examined 400 homes and discovered that only 23% of those have a developed pandemic influenza plan. While another 25% have an influenza plan that is integrated with the disaster response plan, the study found that such integrated influenza plans were inadequate. All other nursing homes, 52% of the total, had no plan at all. The study deems it necessary for nursing homes to have established plan because in a true emergency, hospitals may be unable to accommodate nursing home residents and, thus, nursing home staff need to be able to act in the same manner that hospital staff would. Read more here.

Congress is now considering HB 6064, called the National Silver Alert Act. The Act would establish a national "Silver Alert" communications network that would assist in search efforts for missing seniors on a national and local level. The Act would also assign a Silver Alert Coordinator in the Department of Justice to coordinate the Silver Alert network with the states and would provide for grant funding to individual states to support these efforts. Hopefully, this Act can improve state resources for finding missing seniors. This problem affects nursing homes frequently; elopement is a growing problem in nursing home abuse and neglect cases where residents' movements are not supervised or controlled. Eloping and wandering nursing home residents often are found injured when they leave the nursing home and cannot provide for themselves.

Read the full text of the Act here.

The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act, also known as the Nursing Home Arbitration Bill has been passed by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial Law and Administrative Law. The nursing home legislation, if passed by the Senate will prevent nursing homes in Illinois and all across the nation from requiring the elderly residents in nursing home to sign an arbitration agreement to gain admission. Amendments did not pass that attempted to exclude nursing home employees and nursing home physicians from the bill. To read more about this piece of nursing home legislation that may bring a change to Illinois nursing home residents click here.

An Illinois funeral home has come under scrutiny after mistreatment of an elderly individual. In this case the elderly deceased was wrongfully buried. The family of the deceased went to the funeral home but was shown another deceased individual. The family had obtained legal help to get a court order for the funeral home to undo this tragic mistake: exhume the wrongfully buried grandmother. It is unknown if the family will file a negligence suit for the emotional distress, pain and suffering and anxiety the incident caused them. Although negligent care, negligent abuse and neglect are common at nursing homes in Illinois it is rare to see such negligence continue to affect an individual in the afterlife. To read about this devastating mix-up click here.

Vunies High, the sister of famous boxer Joe Louis, died earlier this year in an independent living facility. High was 92 and had early stages of Alzheimer’s when she was found dead outside of The Heatherwood in February of this year. She had apparently wandered outside where she then died. Yesterday a lawsuit was filed by High’s family against the senior living management corporation that ran the facility. In the suit, the family alleges that the company labeled itself and independent living center yet provided the same services that a nursing home or assisted living facility would. The company may have designated itself as an independent living facility because in the state where the accident occurred nursing homes and assisted living facilities are strictly regulated while independent living facilities are not. High’s family was not aware of this distinction when they placed High in The Heatherwood. Read more here.

As a result of the notoriously substandard care provided by nursing homes throughout the country, elderly individuals in need of assistance are turning to home-care providers to the extent that the home-care industry constitutes two of the top three fastest growing occupations in the U.S. However, partly because of this staggering growth, regulation of home-care workers has been inadequate. Recently, home-care workers were convicted of theft, abuse, and even manslaughter.

One of the principal reasons for this trend is the lack of regulation of the home-healthcare industry. A majority of states do not require criminal background checks for wannabe providers leading to situations where felons convicted of burglary are able to easily access elderly patients’ homes. Illinois is among the few states that requires home-care providers be licensed and screen their employees. However, until other states follow the trend, elder abuse will continue to move from nursing homes into our own homes.

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