Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

A Hillcrest-West resident has had her leg amputated after extensive nursing home abuse and neglect. The resident’s leg initially suffered from deep pressure sores which worsened because of the nursing home resident’s malnutrition. Apparently, nursing home staff neglected some of her feedings and failed to administer proper foods to help the pressure sore heal. The treating physician in the case said that this pressure sore and nursing home abuse and neglect was one of the worst cases he had seen in practice. Proper wound care and appropriate nutrition are essential to healing pressure sores. Unfortunately, in this case the pressure sore went to the bone and nearly caused system-wide sepsis.

Read the story here.

A southern assisted living facility may now face a state investigation after the police arrested a 54 year old man who resides at the facility for nursing home attempted rape of 89 year old resident of the facility. Police records show 273 police calls from the facility over the last two years, resulting in 30 crime reports. This incident of nursing home abuse shows the dangers that fellow nursing home residents can pose each other. Often, nursing homes do not screen incoming residents for previous crimes and criminal backgrounds. Furthermore, this story shows that it is not always nursing home staff that are accused of nursing home abuse and neglect; residents are often the source of nursing home sexual abuse.

See the full news report here.

A family has won a $6 million verdict for the loss of their family member in a nursing home morphine overdose. The lawsuit was filed against Manor Care, the corporation that owns the nursing home, after the nursing home resident died. The lawsuit revealed that the resident was prescribed 15 milligrams of morphine per day and then received a subsequent prescription for 30 milligrams. However, the Manor Care nursing home continued to administer both prescriptions which lead to the nursing home resident’s death by acute morphine poisoning.

See the story here.

The Hampton Plaza nursing home fire in Niles, IL that killed two nursing home residents and injured others continues to raise questions about for-profit nursing home facilities. The Hampton Plaza nursing home is a for-profit facility that contains 152 beds according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. The home provides a variety of nursing home services and other medical services. Hampton Plaza does accept Medicare and Medicaid residents. Often, for-profit nursing home facilities lag behind their nonprofit and public competitors in safety, quality of care, and have increased incidents of nursing home abuse and neglect.

See the Department of Public Health site here.

A local news affiliate has posted video of firefighters attempting to revive one of the victims of the Niles nursing home fire outside of Chicago last night that claimed two lives and critically injured other nursing home residents. The firefighters can be seen performing CPR on one of the victims. The Niles nursing home fire killed two residents who lived in the third floor room where the fire started in a closet. There is no word yet whether the families of the nursing home fire victims plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit or whether the injured nursing home residents will file a nursing home personal injury lawsuit for their nursing home injuries.

See the video here.

The Niles, IL nursing home fire that claimed the lives of two residents and critically injured two other nursing home residents has unearthed more information on the nursing home’s safety record. The nursing home was inspected in 2007 for fire safety and three minor deficiencies were found at that time. All three were corrected before re-inspection in November. There is no report available about any 2008 inspections to the home for fire safety.

See the story here.

A nursing home fire has killed two residents in north suburban Niles. The nursing home residents were killed by the fire which started shortly after 11:00pm in a third floor room. According to early reports, it appears the two men may have died from smoke inhalation in the nursing home fire. Though the nursing home fire was contained to one room in the six story complex, residents from the floor and surrounding rooms had to be evacuated. The entire nursing home was not evacuated.

Read more here.

A recent study released in the American Journal of Public Health found that investor-owned nursing homes provide worse care and have higher instances of nursing home abuse and neglect compared to other home owners. Investor-owned facilities averaged 5.89 deficiencies per home, 46.5% higher than nonprofit facilities and 43.0% higher than public facilities. Additionally, nurse staffing was lower at investor-owned nursing homes. This study highlights the growing problem with the trend to invest in nursing homes simply to make a profit or to occupy land for future use. More and more nursing homes are run simply with the objective of making a profit and not delivering high quality resident care. Losing focus on resident care only causes greater occurrences of nursing home abuse and neglect.

See the report here.

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.

Read the article here.

Levin & Perconti has filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit and wrongful death lawsuit against Care Center and Helia Healthcare for the death of a nursing home resident due to osteomyelitis. The resident developed osteomyelitis, which is a bacterial infection of the bones, while in the nursing home’s care because her pressure ulcers and nutrition were not properly supervised. Malnutrition and pressure sores are a dangerous combination: malnutrition impedes a person’s ability to heal when afflicted with a pressure ulcer. Worsening pressure ulcers can spread bacterial infections to the body like osteomyelitis in this case. In this case, the pressure ulcers eventually required surgical intervention. The decedent is survived by four daughters and three sons.

Levin & Perconti has filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit and wrongful death lawsuit against South Shore Nursing Home for the death of a nursing home resident due to sepsis. The resident developed a sacral ulcer while in the nursing home’s care that was not properly treated and became septic. In addition to the nursing home failing to treat the septic sacral ulcer properly, the resident suffered from weight loss and malnutrition while at the nursing home. Malnutrition, dehydration and weight loss can seriously impede a person’s ability to heal when afflicted with a pressure ulcer and infection. Malnutrition also promotes the development of new sores. The nursing home also did not properly inform the family members of their mother’s care and status of her pressure sore and infection. The decedent is survived by 3 sons and 2 daughters who were all continually involved with their mother’s care.

The AFSCME, a union that represents state, county, and municipal employees is taking on Springfield to seek a raise for Illinois disabled care workers. Currently, staff wages for Illinois disabled care facilities lag almost 2 dollars behind private employers, making it very difficult for state agencies to retain talented staff to care for the disabled. The pay increase would bring care workers’ hourly wages into line with the cost of living and would approach what private employers pay. In long term care for the disabled, proper wages and salaries are essential to ensure quality care. Often, underpaid and under-trained staff have a high turnover rate which causes resident care to suffer, leading to long term care facility resident abuse and neglect.

Read more on the story here.