Elder Law

Illinois Nursing Home Violation: Warren Park Health and Living Center

By Levin & Perconti

Unfortunately, many Chicago nursing homes are found on the Quarterly Violator List of negligent facilities by the Illinois Department of Public Health. For example, Warren Park Health and Living Center located at the 6700 block of North Damen recently received several Type ?A? Violations from the Illinois Department of Public Health and was fined $20,000. The violations were given as a result of negligent care that led to the death of a suicidal resident while taking a bath.

The victim was admitted to the facility earlier this year with several ailments, including bi-polar disorder, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and noted suicidal ideation. A few months ago, the resident was found unresponsive in a tub room on the first floor. The woman was laying face up in the tub with the water pouring full blast straight into her mouth. The resident died at a local hospital shortly after.

An investigation into the event revealed the resident had told other employees several times before of her desire to commit suicide. Specifically, she had previously tried to drown herself?only a month before this incident. She was placed on monitoring over those concerns, but that monitoring lapsed.

Overall, the facility did not have any policies and procedures in place to ensure that residents did not have unfettered access to the unsupervised tub room. They did not fill out an appropriate incident report following this accident, nor did they pass along the information to the Regional Health Department as required.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on December 08, 2010 (boomark / email).