SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Illinois Department of Public Health has fined Dyball Sunshine Home $15,000 (Statement of Violation), for failure to provide adequate supervision to protect residents from physical abuse by another resident. The 16-bed intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled is located at Rural Route 3, Enterprise Road in Fairfield.

During an annual survey, Department investigators learned a male resident had been involved in more than 70 incidents of abuse and mistreatment of other residents over an eight-month period and at least three residents indicated they were afraid of the man.

A review of facility records documented the resident's physical aggression toward staff and other residents included hitting and slapping and throwing water and hot coffee. On one occasion, the resident used fishing wire to choke a resident and another time he struck a blind and deaf resident with a chair.

Despite the numerous incidents, only after using a chair to hit another resident was the resident provided psychiatric care. It is the facility's responsibility to immediately evaluate and determine the most suitable therapy and placement to protect both residents and staff from abuse.

Surveyors could not determine if the incidents resulted in injuries because the facility's files did not include documentation or notations on whether the residents had been seen by a physician. The aggressive resident's physician stated he was not notified of the incidents.

The 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, to document abuses in residents' medical records and to investigate all allegations of abuse and injuries of unknown origins.

Dyball Sunshine Home has requested a hearing on the Department's action. No hearing date has been set.