Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

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.

Many nursing homes require residents or their families to sign arbitration clauses, whereby they sign away their right to bring suit in court for any abuse or neglect by the nursing home. A Senate committee is currently investigating the issue and heard from the family of William Kurth on Wednesday. Kurth fractured his hip and leg and received numerous pressure ulcers while living out his final months in a nursing home. His family attempted to sue for negligence, but the case was dismissed on account of his wife having signed an arbitration clause when her husband was admitted. Arbitration clauses benefit nursing homes because of their speed, cost, and, most notably, their confidentiality. The problem, however, is that most families are not thinking about suing a home when they admit their family member or loved one into the nursing home. Kurth’s wife, for example, was distressed about her husband’s recent stroke and overall condition and was, herself, taking medication when she agreed to arbitration. The Kurth family attorney called that day one of the most stressful in her life, and states that she would not have signed those papers if she knew what she was giving up: the right to a trial by jury. Kurth’s children allege that their father got infections because excrement and urine were left on his bed sores without being cleaned for multiple days in a row. While there is mounting support for banning arbitration clauses for nursing homes, the issue is still hotly contested and far from decided.

Read more here.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its action plan for nursing home improvement. CMS is responsible for establishing standards for national nursing home care by developing the standards, inspecting homes, and collaborating with other organizations to help ensure standards are met. The CMS action plan lays out the 2008 goals and milestones for improving nursing home standards including plans on improving treatment and management of bedsores and pressure ulcers, ways to improve feeding by using dedicated feeding aides, and other means of improving nursing home care.

Read the full action plan here.

The debate over arbitration agreements for nursing home residents now has a new voice: the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, two lobbying groups for the nursing home industry, now argue that arbitration agreements would improve nursing home resident care. However, arbitration agreements often severely limit the amount and type of recovery that a resident can seek if there is nursing home abuse and neglect and only serve to prevent nursing home residents from seeking justice in court. Nursing home residents should not lose their rights to seek justice and ensure that they are protected from nursing home abuse and neglect by filing a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit.

Read more about arbitration agreements here.

A recent article on a Santa Barbara man provides an excellent example for Illinois families with loved ones in nursing homes. The man’s wife is confined to a nursing home facility because her MS is advanced. Her husband has become her most important advocate and lifeline, maintaining constant contact with the nursing home facility, providing oversight of the staff’s care, and often butting heads with the nursing home’s management to prevent nursing home abuse and neglect.

This story highlights how difficult family roles become when a loved one requires constant care. In this case, the man’s role changed quickly from being his wife’s primary advocate to assisting with her daily care, to taking on the nursing home management to fight for his wife’s rights to be free from nursing home abuse and neglect. Families should remember that they are not alone: Illinois has a nursing home ombudsmen program designed to help advocate for nursing home residents. Nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers can often achieve results that families may not be able to, especially when their loved one has suffered nursing home abuse and neglect.

For the complete story, click here.

Today great progress was made in advancing the rights of Illinois nursing home residents and their families. The good news comes in the form of House Bill #5213, which has the potential to improve nursing home care in Illinois by demanding accountability from Illinois nursing homes and long-term care facilities as a prerequisite to obtaining and retaining a license.

Currently, 20% of Illinois nursing homes don’t carry liability insurance. This means many Illinois nursing home residents who are abused and neglected in nursing homes cannot be compensated for injuries they suffer from a nursing home's wrongdoing. Furthermore, facilities are not even required to notify residents and their families that they are uninsured.

Today, the House Human Services committee passed HB 5213 sponsored by Representative David Miller. HB 5213 provides that no person may establish, operate, maintain, offer, or advertise a long-term care facility unless they provide the Department of Public Health with proof of liability insurance in an amount not less than $1 million. HB 5213 also reinstates a provision that was removed from the statutes in 1995 that provides that a licensee shall pay treble damages (the greater of three times the actual amount of damages or $500) in addition to costs and attorney's fees when the rights of a resident are violated.

Please join advocates for Illinois' elderly in our efforts to protect the rights of Illinois nursing home residents and their families and to hold Illinois nursing homes accountable for their wrongdoing. A copy of the bill's full text can be found here.

Please contact us if you have any questions at 312-332-2872.

The police department of Quincy, Illinois has a well-established Senior and Family Resource Center that has recently appointed a new elder services officer, Detective Tom Liesen. Elder abuse and neglect, home repair fraud, and financial exploitation of elders are some of the areas that Detective Liesen investigates. He has been trained in elder services and regularly attends elder rights conferences. Liesen also visits nursing homes to speak with residents and staff and has investigated cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. He said, "When you see the pictures of bedsores, it's shocking. It's sad because you realize that one little bit of care could have prevented that." Detective Liesen provides a much needed service to his community and has set an example for other Illinois communities to follow. Protecting the elderly should be a priority in every town and city.

Click here for the full article

There are many different forms of elder abuse and neglect and it is important to watch for signs of abuse in order to protect loved ones. Anyone over age 60 can be a victim of elder abuse. Elder abuse and neglect comes in many forms:

-Physical abuse
-Emotional abuse includes verbal assaults, threats, intimidation and harassment
-Confinement is restricting an elderly person without their consent. Many believe that restraining seniors with Alzheimer's or other illnesses should be restrained in order to prevent wandering off. This is illegal and there are better alternatives
-Passive neglect is when a loved one, caregiver, nursing home or assisted living facility is unable to provide a senior with the care they need. This can include failing to provide medication at appropriate times, causing malnutrition or dehydration by forgetting meals, allowing falls due to lack of supervision, allowing bed sores to develop as a result of neglect, failing to monitor the hygiene of the elderly person and more.
-Financial exploitation is the misuse of a senior's money, accounts, insurance, etc. It is the most commonly reported form of elder abuse. Many different types of people can exploit elders financially including family members, caregivers and employees of nursing homes or assisted living facilities.
-Sexual abuse is any type of sexual act or conduct performed against the elderly person's will.

If you are aware of elder abuse or suspect that a senior is being abused, call the Illinois elder abuse hotline at (866) 800-1409. It is available 24 hours a day.

Financial abuse is commonly targeted at senior citizens. Seminars are one way the elderly can be convinced that they need financial products they do not. Estate planning is one example of an avenue used to dupe elderly attendees. Whether senior centers that hold these sales presentations can be held responsible has been questioned in California. There, facilities that allow financial elder abuse to occur can fall in the sphere of responsibility. A senior center could be named co-defendant in a financial lawsuit. A class action lawsuit filed by California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform & the Institute on Aging claims that some companies acquired information about seniors' finances through seminars and sent agents to their homes to sell financial products. It is now being questioned whether facilities that housed those seminars could also be implicated. Some senior centers in California have been warned to screen presenters in order to prevent being held responsible for financial elder abuse and exploitation.

Steven M. Levin of Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti has filed another lawsuit against an Alden care center, Alden Long Grove Rehabilitation & Health Care Center, alleging that Alden failed to obey the Nursing Home Care Act and that the negligence of the staff at the facility resulted in the plaintiff's wrongful death. The family of the patient, a man who experienced severe weight loss at the facility, had taken action in alerting Alden staff and filing a complaint with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). The IDPH investigation detected an inadequacy; the facility failed to implement a plan of care for the man's rapid weight loss. The patient lost an astounding 23 pounds between May and July of 2006.

In 2007, Alden Long Grove has been investigated 7 times by the IDPH. Alden care centers all over the Chicago-land area have been investigated 40 times. Levin & Perconti has filed numerous nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits against multiple Alden care centers around Illinois.

Click here for the full article

Illinois Citizens for Better Care (ICBC) reminds residents, family members and advocates that Illinois requires that all staff of health care facilities, including nursing homes, who "examine or treat .. a resident" to wear an i.d. badge with the employee's first name, "licensure status, if any," and staff position. The requirement applies both to employees and volunteers.

The requirement appears in the Medical Patient Rights Act.

Here is the text of the law, which can also be found here:

(410 ILCS 50/6)
Sec. 6. Identification badges. A health care facility licensed in
this State shall require each employee of or volunteer for the
facility, including a student, who examines or treats a patient or
resident of the facility to wear an identification badge that readily
discloses the first name, licensure status, if any, and staff position
of the person examining or treating the patient or resident.
(Source: P.A. 90-331, eff. 1-1-98.)

A new report from the UK, the Human Rights of Older People in Healthcare, has recently put forth new information regarding abuse of the elderly, specifically in nursing homes and other types of care facilities and hospitals. Politicians on the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights have announced that legal and cultural changes must be made in the UK in order to prevent further abuse. The study found that a startling amount of older people in care homes and hospitals experienced abuse, sexual abuse and assault, physical and verbal abuse, dehydration, malnutrition and neglect. Over a fifth (21%) of long term care facilities were found to be failing to meet minimum standards of privacy and dignity. It was strongly suggested that healthcare staff receive regular and targeted training in human rights and its application in long term care and assistance. Unfortunately, even proper general job training in these facilities regarding simple policies and procedures is scarce. Also suggested is an integration of inspection, regulation and complaints processes for elderly health and social care along with an overall national strategy to improve services for dementia patients and the elderly population. The importance of this study is difficult to exaggerate. The Department of Health now has a platform to work off of and will be strongly encouraged to act based on the claims of the report.

Click here to read the report

A lawsuit was recently brought against the state of Illinois by five nursing home residents in Cook County who claim that Illinois is violating federal law by failing to provide enough resources for nursing home patients to live in their communities instead. The Americans with Disabilities Act includes a responsibility to provide care in an integrated setting. The state of Illinois, however, allocates more money to long-term care facilities than home and community care. Elders receive poor treatment in nursing homes and can be subjected to abuse and neglect. Some of these elders are capable and independent enough to receive only home or community care but are forced to remain in long-term facilities because of the state's allocation of funds.

Click here to read the full article

The Illinois Congress and Gov. Rod Blagojevich have enacted a law that helps to protect elder citizens of Illinois by requiring elder abuse services to be maintained 24/7. The Department on Aging runs a 24 hour hotline but situations of elder abuse are more often reported locally and those hotlines are often unavailable during nights and weekends. In southern Illinois, however, 13 counties represented by the Shawnee Alliance for Seniors have maintained round-the-clock access for almost two decades. The Shawnee Alliance helps elders with issues ranging from risk of physical harm to financial exploitation. The number of calls to the southern Illinois hotline have risen every year with 775 calls in 2006. In the southern Illinois region, 14% of each 1,000 residents have reported or been victims of elder abuse.

Click here for the full article

Medicare patients are entitled to 90 days of hospitalization per illness and after that time, the hospital may try to discharge them even if they are not ready. If you are a Medicare patient, knowing your rights can help you extend your stay by crucial days. Appealing for extra days of Medicare coverage can buy you a longer hospital stay even if you don't win. Hospitals are now required to give patients written notice about the discharge policy immediately after admission and two days before discharge. If you receive a discharge notice but believe you need more time in the hospital, contact your local Medicare Quality Improvement Organization immediately. This organization is made up of doctors and other professionals that monitor the quality of care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. The organization will review your discharge notice and determine if an extended stay is necessary. You cannot be charged during this process. If you disagree with that decision, there are other options to appeal.

Click here for the full article

In Ohio, sheriffs are required to notify neighbors when sexual predators live near by and enforce laws prohibiting sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school. Nursing home residents are not exempt from these laws, but because the intent of the laws is to protect children and because elder abuse is an overlooked crisis in America, nursing home residents are forced, unknowingly, to live in homes shared with sex offenders and other criminals. With nursing home abuse and neglect being an important problem we face today, it is important to make sure loved ones are safe, protected and cared for- not at danger of sexual assault and misconduct. The Ohio state legislature is debating a bill that would require nursing homes to disclose the presence of sexual offenders to new or prospective patients. In one instance, a family placed an 18-year-old mentally retarded woman in a long term care facility but was unaware of the presence of sexual predators. Eventually, the home's failure to supervise residents convicted of sexual offenses allowed the woman to be raped by a sexual predator previously convicted of raping three women. It is going to be important, in the face of a growing elder population, to raise awareness of the many hazards of nursing home care.

Contacting elder advocates like ombudsmen and elder law attorneys can help send nursing homes the message that we are paying attention. They can not get away with underfunding homes, allowing for abuse and neglect, while the owners are pocketing excess cash. Contacting state agencies, advocates and elder law attorneys is the first step toward deterring nursing homes from continuing in their careless practices.

Continue reading "Sex offenders live unidentified in nursing homes" »

It is important for families of nursing home residents to be aware of an important issue: signing nursing home agreements can wind up ultimately costing you large sums of money. The Elder Law Minute brings to discussion the fact that unfortunately, many nursing home admittances occur after a rushed discharge from a hospital, resulting in family members being forced to hurriedly sign mounds of paperwork. In some instances, family members signing papers as the "responsible party" guarantees that the resident's fees must be paid in full- if not from the resident, then from the responsible party. In the Nursing Home Care Act, a nursing home that participates in the Medicare or Medicaid program must not require a third party to guarantee payment. This is why it is important to make sure that paperwork is reviewed by an elder law attorney.