levin & perconti

Suit Filed Against Illinois Nursing Home With More Than 200 COVID-19 Cases

Published on: May 27, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

Town of Cicero Sues City View Multicare Center for Lack of Coronavirus-Related Infection Control Measures

On May 1, the Town of Cicero filed a scathing complaint against City View Multicare Center, LLC, the State of Illinois, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), and Governor JB Pritzker, in his official capacity. The complaint came after Cicero officials and essential workers became aware of a “troubling uptick in illness at City View” along with concerning conditions at City View that started nearly two months prior to the pandemic. According to town reports, the complaint timeline for a series of dangerous coronavirus related events impacting the community goes as follows.

March 30:

Ambassador Nursing & Rehab Center: COVID-19 Summary

Published on: May 26, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

Ambassador Nursing & Rehab Center releases COVID-19 statistics showing 101 COVID infections and 9 deaths. Levin & Perconti, Illinois nursing home lawyers launch investigation into gross negligence in preventing the spread of COVID-19

On May 15, 2020, Ambassador Nursing & Rehab Center, located in Chicago, Illinois, released long term care outbreak data reporting of laboratory confirmed COVID-19 outbreak cases. These statics confirm that 101 infections and 9 deaths have occurred at the facility during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Quarterly Violations

Why Nursing Homes Were Unprepared For Coronavirus

Published on: May 26, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

Understanding Why Nursing Homes Were Unprepared For The COVID Crisis

As we know, nursing home residents are part of an extremely vulnerable population to infectious disease, coronavirus included. They reside in relatively tight living quarters and share communal spaces for exercising, visiting with family and friends, daily activities, and meals. Most are also elderly or sick and have underlying conditions that put them at higher risk for contracting an illness or respiratory disease such as COVID-19. Also, the majority of long-term care facilities have proven incredibly unprepared to prevent resident exposure to preventable illnesses and diseases due to understaffing and a lack of safeguards in place to protect residents.

Today, with new guidelines in place that also restrict most visitors from seeing residents, support from family advocates who typically provide a watchdog type view of their loved one’s care has also gone awry. As a result, if a resident passes due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in a nursing home, a family will naturally have questions about what happened, and was the death the facility’s fault?

Glenview Terrace COVID-19 Deaths On The Rise

Published on: May 22, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

Glenview Terrace Continues Jump in COVID-19 Deaths of Residents

About a third of all COVID-19 deaths in Illinois have now been linked to long-term care facilities, and to make matters worse, cases are also doubling, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). A rehabilitation facility in Glenview is the latest to report more than two dozen COVID-19 deaths. Glenview Terrace is a 314-bed facility, located at 1511 Greenwood Road in Cook County. It has now reached 75 outbreak cases of the novel coronavirus and 25 deaths.

Glenview’s Administrator Allen Hollander told the Chicago Tribune that the people who died had first become sick in late March. Hollander also explained that more than 20 infected staff could have contracted the disease outside of the facility.

Coronavirus Cases at Bria of Geneva Nursing Home

Published on: May 21, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

Coronavirus Cases Consume Bria of Geneva Nursing Home Marking One of Largest Outbreaks in Illinois

Located in the western suburbs of Chicago, Bria of Geneva nursing home is swiftly picking up cases of COVID-19. So far, two dozen residents are dead, and the novel coronavirus has infected at least 75 in just a few short weeks. Bria of Geneva only has 91 residents and the first resident tested positive on April 17. Thirty-seven of the Kane County home’s 120 workers have also tested positive for the virus.

Like many Illinois nursing homes, up until a few weeks ago, administrators were simply screening residents for symptoms and taking some infectious disease measures such as limiting visitors and isolating symptomatic residents. A request for extensive and broad testing, increasing the use of personal protection equipment, and accurate reporting of cases were still failed coronavirus-related prevention measures. At best, an understaffed workforce was attempting to contain the virus by transferring sick residents to a coronavirus-designated wing at another home.

Levin & Perconti, Nationally Recognized Leaders in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Law, Launches Investigation into Illinois Nursing Homes Amid COVID-19

Published on: May 19, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

Levin & Perconti, Nationally Recognized Leaders in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Law, Launches Investigation into Illinois Nursing Homes Amid COVID-19
Nursing home residents still have the right to proper care and providers should always be held accountable when that care goes badly wrong. It’s no different during these difficult times surrounding COVID-19.

The attorneys at Levin & Perconti have launched over 100 investigations into a number of assisted living, long-term care and skilled nursing facilities that have failed to uphold adequate safeguards and care in response to the COVID-19 outbreak for residents in Cook and surrounding counties in Illinois. We are seeking anyone who has information about the outbreak of COVID-19 at these facilities to contact us.

If you or your loved one has been impacted by COVID in a nursing home, please contact us for a free consultation on whether you have a legal case against the nursing home.

How To Provide COVID-19 Help For Your Elder Community

Published on: May 8, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

Learn How You Can Help Nursing Homes During The Coronavirus Pandemic

According to John Hopkins University School of Medicine, recent estimates show nursing home residents make up less than one-half of one percent of the U.S. population but represent approximately 15 percent of COVID-19 related deaths to date. Many of these patients are frail and vulnerable, have multiple chronic conditions, and are under the care of health workers who face complex challenges.

Those challenges may include:

Levin & Perconti Partner Speaks Up for Illinois Nursing Home Residents

Published on: May 7, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

Each week, it’s expected that an increasingly high number of U.S. nursing homes will have confirmed cases of COVID-19 and subsequent outbreaks among residents and staff. In Joliet, Illinois, the view is also looking grim. On April 23, Steven Levin, a partner and attorney at Levin & Perconti, spoke with The Times Weekly about the alarming issues arising at Symphony of Joliet. The newspaper is reporting that the facility has more confirmed cases and deaths from coronavirus than any other long-term care facility in Will County.

Levin & Perconti has a history of helping families file lawsuits against Symphony facilities for negligence. Unfortunately, those same failures are being highlighted and have become more noticeable due to the spread of COVID-19.

“We are currently representing several family members of residents at Symphony of Joliet nursing home,” Levin told The Times Weekly. “We’re receiving an increased number of calls directly from residents’ families.”

Understaffed Nursing Homes Contribute To COVID-19 Worries

Published on: May 4, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

As of Friday, May 1, nursing home workers at 64 Illinois facilities have said they will strike on May 8 due to the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), safety training, testing, emergency benefits, hazard pay, and paid time off for coronavirus-related illnesses. The workers are represented by SEIU Healthcare, a growing union of healthcare, child care, home care and nursing home workers in the Midwest.

According to the most recent news release by SEIU, “Family members, faith leaders and community supporters will call upon nursing home owners to promptly settle a fair contract with the provisions needed to safeguard both workers and residents—including above-poverty base wages, hazard pay during the current crisis, appropriate and adequate levels of PPE, plus the increased staffing levels to support quality resident care.”

Many of the workers have also been reported to say that facility owners and operators have “refused to increase staffing levels or protect workers’ healthcare coverage and haven’t been transparent about COVID-19 cases within their facilities.”

Illinois Department of Health Provides Map Highlighting COVID-19 Cases at Nursing Homes

Published on: May 1, 2020 | Levin & Perconti

The Illinois Department of Health (IDPH) has made a map of the state’s long-term care facilities in Illinois with cases of COVID-19 among residents and staff public. The numbers are provisional, and the list is updated weekly to show lab-confirmed cases and cases meeting the Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC) outbreak case definition.

While facility administrators have been instructed to restrict visits, cancel group activities, shut down dining rooms and screen residents and staff for fevers and respiratory disease symptoms, we encourage family members of residents who reside in an Illinois long-term care facility to visit this map often to help understand the growing risk COVID-19 may present to their loved ones.

Visit the IDPH website here and scroll down to locate the county in which the facility you are looking for is in.