July 10, 2002

SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Illinois Department of Public Health has fined Ellner Terrace (Statement of Violation) $10,000 for failure to protect residents from abuse by another resident. The 16-bed intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled is located at Market & Columbia streets in Evansville.

Responding to a complaint, Department investigators learned a resident, who had a history of anger and aggression, had hit, choked, yelled at or threatened at least 14 residents over an eight-month period.

The facility neglected to provide adequate supervision and staff to prevent the abuse. There were only five direct-care workers for a 24-hour day and the cook tried to monitor residents while preparing food

The facility also failed to have an appropriate intervention plan to prevent the resident’s aggressive behaviors and to change the current plan when it was proven ineffective. The plan called for staff to keep the resident busy in order to prevent inappropriate behaviors, but staff said that was difficult to do because there were so few employees.

Staff were told to remove the resident from the environment when he was raging, but this was not incorporated into his behavior plan. In fact, residents and staff were sometimes removed instead. On one occasion, staff locked clients in the kitchen for 3 ½ hours to protect them from the resident.

The resident was admitted to the facility from a psychiatric hospital after being discharged from another group home for threatening staff with a knife. According to a report written after the resident’s admission to Ellner Terrace, the facility needed to look at whether it was a “good fit” for his needs.

The facility’s medical director recommended the resident be moved to a more secure environment for the protection of staff and other residents, but the facility chose not to follow the recommendation.

A Department-ordered plan of correction required the facility to establish procedures to determine the most suitable therapy and placement for perpetrators of abuse in order to ensure the safety of other residents and employees, and to have a sufficient number of qualified staff on duty to meet the needs of residents.

Ellner Terrace has requested a hearing on the Department’s action. No hearing date has been scheduled.