Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

Following gross negligence by a nursing home staff, a resident admitted for short-term rehabilitation at the facility had her leg amputated. The resident was admitted following surgery on a fractured ankle. The nursing home failed to take the resident to a follow-up appointment on time, and when they finally did take her, surgeons discovered that her wound was not healing correctly. A physician then ordered that the wound be monitored for infection and treated daily. The resident was also to receive an antibiotic.

The nursing home failed to follow these relatively simple orders. As a result, less than one week after the follow-up appointment, the resident was hospitalized and her leg subsequently amputated. The facility was cited for failure to meet professional standards of care and was fined. However, this incident is indicative of a broader issue with the low level of care provided by many nursing homes throughout the country demonstrating a need to secure residents’ rights.

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Nursing home staff members are the front lines of long term care in the national nursing home system. However, nursing home staff members are often underpaid for their jobs and some nursing home staff members are not sufficiently trained to be safe and effective caregivers. A recent article shows a flip side to the nursing home industry’s low wages: underpaid nursing home staff often cause nursing home abuse and neglect. However, some nursing staff are abused and neglected in nursing homes. A recent survey exposed that nearly half of all nursing staff had experienced bullying on the job and 2/3 had been intimidated on the job. This other side raises serious concerns for nursing home resident care and should expose the dangers that nursing home owners and management create when they do not pay their staff members adequately.

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A recent article on the growing numbers of US seniors highlights a major problem with the US nursing home and senior care industry: nursing home staff members are woefully underpaid despite providing essential life assistance for nursing home residents. Doctors who specialize in geriatric medicine are paid less than their general practice counterparts and far less than other specialties in medicine. The failure of the US nursing home industry to pay staff well is often one of the major underlying causes of nursing home abuse and neglect because homes are not able to attract and retain nursing staff without offering competitive salaries. Additionally, nursing homes may face increased claims of nursing home abuse and neglect, as well as medical malpractice, if geriatric medicine continues to lose talented professionals to other specialties.

See the full article for more information here.

Investigators have asked the state to examine whether the professional licenses should be suspended or revoked for two former nurses at an Illinois nursing home charged with Illinois nursing home neglect after a string of suspicious deaths. The family of a 78 year-old resident, represented by Levin & Perconti’s Steve Levin, announced plans to file an Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit.

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Former nursing home administrator has filed a lawsuit saying she was fired because she complained that the executive director’s 91 year-old father was sexually assaulting a demented nursing home residence. Her lawyer states that this is a classic whistleblower case where the administrator was fired for sticking up for a patient suffering nursing home sexual abuse.

According to the lawsuit, both the nursing home’s medical director and a licensed psychologist recommended that the 91 year-old be supervised 24 hours a day to monitor his behavior, but the executive director rejected the idea.

For the full article.

A civil claim was filed against a nursing home charging that one of its nurses negligently contributed to the death of a resident. The resident died about two days after he was given the wrong medication by a nurse at the facility. The nurse acknowledged her error, once she realized that she had given the wrong medication to the wrong patient. However, the facility would not comment on whether the nurse continues to be employed or whether any other legal actions alleging harm to its residents.

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Financial exploitation and abuse is the most common form of elder abuse reported and investigated in Illinois. Recently, the caregiver of an 83-year-old man was found forging checks in the man's name. Workers at the Sugar Grove, Illinois bank noticed the irregularities in the checks and notified police. The caregiver is being charged with forgery and financial exploitation of an elderly/disabled person. The elderly aren't always lucky enough to have outsiders discover the source of exploitation. Here are a few ways to protect yourself or a loved one when hiring a caregiver:

-Check the backgrounds and references of future employees
-Allow another person (friend, family, lawyer) to have access to bank accounts to monitor spending
-Tell the bank that a caregiver will be handling some financial transactions and to monitor them
-If employing a caregiver or other worker in the home, secure personal information
-Never give bank account or credit card information over the phone
-Shred or get rid of papers with personal and bank information

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After reports of nursing home abuse and neglect, the nursing home East Peoria Gardens Health Care Center has been heavily fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health and its director's administrator's license has been suspended by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The director left her job when the IDPH investigations began after the deaths of two patients caused by the nursing home's negligence, the admittance of patients with criminal pasts, and complaints of an atmosphere that caused fear among staff and residents. Attorney Steven M. Levin of Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti filed a lawsuit against the home on behalf of the family of a resident who fell at the home last spring, sustaining a serious head injury ultimately leading to death. Another resident choked and died as a result of the nursing home's negligence. These cases of nursing home abuse and neglect resulted in a $100,000 fine by the IDPH and other severe penalties. Its investigation found 23 nursing home code violations

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A caregiver in Sugar Grove, Illinois has recently been charged with financial exploitation of an elderly person and is currently in the Kane County Jail. He was found stealing from his elderly client, an 83-year-old man, after cashing 12 checks at a bank in Sugar Grove. Financial abuse is the most commonly reported form of elder abuse and neglect.

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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.

A new law passed recently makes nursing home and hospital patients with a risk of falling safer. The law acknowledges problems with the handling and care of patients. Many lawsuits each year are brought on behalf of patients who are injured because the higher level of care they required when being transported or lifted was not met. Patients that are at risk are those at facilities that, either because of neglectful practices, staffing issues or lack of appropriate equipment, are unable to provide the care needed. The new law requires health care facilities to purchase equipment designed to aid in the lifting and handling of patients, such as mechanical lifts, as well as solving many issues relating to nursing home and hospital staff. The New Jersey law makes it mandatory for health care workers to be properly trained and also require that there are enough staff members on hand to be able to meet the needs of patients requiring lifting or transportation. Also important is the protection workers are given from being penalized by employers for refusing to handle a patient because of a concern for the patient's or their own safety and wellbeing. Many times, patients require multiple staff members in a patient handling procedure and when there are not enough workers available to help, the resulting safety risks are unacceptable. Hopefully other states, including Illinois, will follow suit.

Heritage Manor Nursing Home in Colfax, Illinois lost a legal battle in a lawsuit where a former employee was awarded $17,000 after reporting sexual assault of an older resident. The whistleblower claims that she was fired after she reported suspicions that sexual abuse of an elderly resident of Heritage Manor was being ignored. The former employee, and widowed mother of nine, was awarded $10,000 in pain and suffering. Heritage Manor, a company based in Bloomington, has been sued in other nursing home abuse and neglect cases.

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Twenty years ago, Congress passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) and it is now time to review its successes and failures in order to improve the quality of nursing home care. OBRA regulates inadequate nursing homes by either shutting them down or allowing well-performing nursing home care providers to take over substandard facilities. However, the system in place requires that those who take over failing homes must be responsible for the liabilities that the previous management had incurred, including fines, penalties and deadlines to correct certain problems, including issues regarding nursing home abuse and neglect. Because the new management must take on these liabilities there are less resources to dedicate to improvement of the quality of care. The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) has strongly urged congress to pass legislation regarding "the counterproductive nurse aide training lock-out, the need for joint training of nursing home and surveyor staff, allowing states to demonstrate alternative quality assurance systems, facilitating new ownership for chronic problem homes, and using civil money funds to improve nursing home quality."

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A lot of our blog posts concentrate on abuse of nursing home residents, but we also realize that nursing home employees must be treated well in order to continue to provide adequate treatment to residents. Nursing home employees should receive equal treatment. A former employee of a Northwest Indiana nursing home facility claims that she was discriminated against and eventually fired because she was pregnant. According to the complaint, she informed her supervisor that she was pregnant in January. A month later, she provided her employer with a letter from her doctor requesting that she avoid heavy lifting and strenuous activities. She was denied accommodation for her medical restrictions.

For the full article.

Despite Carlyle Group's completion of the Manor Care buyout, the union that represents nursing home employees in Florida is suing, hoping to block the takeover. Manor Care, a chain of nursing homes, was recently bought by a private equity firm, Carlyle Group, for $6.3 billion. The transfer was completed the day after rulings that held up the buyout were dissolved in West Virginia and Michigan. The union, SEIU Healthcare Florida, has been fighting the takeover. There are 29 Manor Care facilities in Florida housing 3700 residents.

The lawsuit was brought about on the grounds that the Carlyle Groups license application was incomplete. Another plaintiff listed in the lawsuit is the son of a Manor Care resident. He recently stated, "I want to make sure Carlyle's takeover won't harm my mother's care." All of the parties are reviewing the lawsuit in this controversial acquisition.

Nine years have passed with a nursing home employee union trying to get a contract at the Ruby Weston Manor in East New York. Now, the nursing home union has had it: if there is not contract by November 27, they have authorized a strike. A member of the union, stated that “We take care of the [nursing home] residents. [The nursing home] should take better care of us.” Last December, then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed suit against the CEO of Ruby Weston Manor, seeking her removal as CEO of the two taxpayer-supported nursing homes for the poor. The nursing home abuse lawsuit filed by the Attorney General charged that the CEO had enriched herself and relatives with millions of dollars in self-approved salaries and benefits. Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that the CEO circumvented state not-for-profit laws and had nursing home neglect at the two facilities.

Again, we see CEOs of nursing homes getting rich while the employees and residents suffer. If a nursing home cannot afford caring employees, nursing home residents will undoubtedly endure nursing home abuse and neglect.

For the full article.

When private equity groups purchase large nursing home chains, they don’t do it because they want to get in the business of caring for the elderly. They do it so that they can cut costs, increase profits, and then resell them at a higher price. The Carlyle Group’s $6.3 billion acquisition of HCR ManorCare is an example of this type of flipping opportunity, but because this involves the well-being of senior citizens and those who cannot otherwise care for themselves, the drastic measures that investment groups like Carlyle Group take to cut staff has drawn the attention of the government.

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