SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Illinois Department of Public Health has fined Orchard Court $15,000 for three violations of the state Nursing Home Care Act. The 16-bed intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled is located at 1430 State Route 127 North in Jonesboro.

The first violation (Statement of Violation), was the result of the facility's failure to provide supervision to prevent a resident from leaving the facility unnoticed. The resident, who had a history of wandering, was found about an hour after he was reported missing playing in a creek in a wooded area west of the facility. The man, who was treated for abrasions at a local hospital, had to walk though an area littered with glass, rotten wood and rusted barbed wire and climb down a steep hill to get to the creek.

Department surveyors learned the facility failed to properly train employees to enable them to provide the supervision and monitoring needed to protect the health and safety of residents with histories of attempting to leave the facility.

The second violation (Statement of Violation), was imposed for the facility failing to provide a resident with a prescribed soft diet. The resident choked on whole chicken nuggets that were left at his table. During the Department's investigation, a surveyor observed a plate of cut-up chicken on the the resident's table that he could have grabbed due to the lack of staff supervision. In addition, the resident was served a whole piece of bread, which he tore in half and stuck in his mouth, but staff did not intervene.

The third violation (Statement of Violation), occurred when a resident, who was to be under constant staff supervision, was locked on a bus for nearly five hours. Neither a staff employee riding the bus nor the bus driver checked to make sure all that all passengers had exited. A day-training facility staff member noticed the resident was missing, but assumed he was absent since he had missed the previous day. One employee asked another to call the facility and check on his whereabouts, but this was not done.

Orchard Court has requested a hearing on the Department's actions. No hearing dates have been set.