June 8, 2000

SPRINGFIELD, IL – At the request of the Illinois Department of Public Health, a new management team has been appointed by the Coles County Circuit Court to assume the day-to- day operations of Heritage House of Charleston and to begin steps to close the 91-bed intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled.

Dr. John R. Lumpkin, state public health director, said he asked Attorney General Jim Ryan to seek the receivership late Wednesday due to concerns about the health and safety of the residents. Robert Zabka, the owner of the Heritage House, 738 18th St., agreed to the operation takeover, which was signed today by Circuit Judge Gary W. Jacobs.

Since February, the Department has fined Heritage House $40,000 and moved to revoke the facility’s license for a series of state nursing home care violations that include repeated instances of abuse, neglect and lack of adequate staff. (Statements of Violation: December 1999, March 2000, May 2000) The Department had assigned a monitor in August 1999 to regularly visit the facility to check on the welfare of the residents.

“Heritage House has demonstrated an inability to provide for the proper care and treatment of its residents and to protect them from harm,” Dr. Lumpkin said. “The court-appointed receiver, Chicago Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC), today will start the process of an organized closure of the facility.”

Chicago ARC assumed complete operational control of Heritage House today after a 10 a.m. meeting with the facility staff and immediately began conferring with residents and their families and guardians on alternative care facilities. Dr. Lumpkin said the timetable for closure of Heritage House will depend on the availability of beds for the 81 residents currently residing in the facility, but should be completed within six months.

In addition to the state actions against Heritage House, the federal Health Care Financing Administration has been involved in ongoing proceedings since September 1999 to remove the facility from participation in the Medicaid and Medicare program due to lack of active treatment, supervision and health care, and to failure to followup on reports of abuse.

As the result of complaint and incident report investigations dating to September 1999, Department surveyors have documented the following:

• Staff did not monitor, notify a physician or treat two residents with rapidly deteriorating health conditions due to bowel obstructions. One died due to cardiac arrest related to a colon perforation and the other died from a blood infection.
• Residents were observed by surveyors sitting or laying in their own urine or feces and wandering naked or partially clothed in the hallways.
• A resident, who was to be checked every 15 minutes, was left in his room with the door closed and the lights out for long periods of time. He was found by a Department surveyor lying in bed naked with feces smeared on the sheet. There was feces and a pool of urine on the floor; and the walls, a door and other areas of the room were smeared with feces, some of which was dried and had been present for some time.
• Twelve different residents wandered unnoticed from the facility, which is located on a heavily traveled highway. Surveyors noted that door alarms were either not activated or ignored when sounded.
• A 25-year-old resident was sexually abused by a 58-year-old resident with a history of wandering at night and sexual tendencies toward other residents.
• A resident with a history of ingesting non-food items was not properly monitored and required surgery to remove objects from his abdomen and colon.
• A resident suffered scratches and swelling to her eye after her roommate tipped over her wheelchair. The abusive resident, who had previously pushed over the woman’s wheelchair several times, was not to be alone with her roommate with the door closed.
• Staff did not provide proper nursing care in accordance with individual resident needs. Examples included failure to administer dietary supplements, to obtain results of physician ordered tests, to follow directions and to discontinue a resident’s medication.
• Staff did not consistently document behaviors exhibited or medications administered in order to properly update individual care plans.

Heritage House of Charleston has requested hearings on the Department’s earlier fines and disciplinary actions. No hearing dates have been scheduled.

Illinois Department of Public Health 535 West Jefferson Street Springfield, Illinois 62761 Phone 217-782-4977 Fax 217-782-3987 TTY 800-547-0466 Questions or Comments