SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois Department of Public Health has moved to revoke the operating license of Concord Extended Care and fined the facility $15,000 (Statement of Violation) for failure to prevent a resident from leaving the facility unsupervised. The 134-bed skilled care facility is located at 9401 S. Ridgeland Ave. in Oak Lawn.

The owners of Concord Extended Care have requested a hearing to contest the Department's action and, as a result, the revocation action will be delayed until a hearing has been held. A hearing date has not been scheduled.

The Department gave notice it intends to revoke Concord's license as a result of the facility's failure to implement an imposed plan of correction ordered last year to ensure staff thoroughly search all areas inside and outside the building when a resident is missing.

Responding to a complaint, Department surveyors learned a resident, who was wearing an electronic monitoring device, was able to cross a busy street and intersection before he was noticed by members of the local fire department. Local police returned him to the facility unharmed.

Although the resident had made repeated attempts to leave the facility, staff did not revise his care plan to address the behavior.

An employee heard an exit door alarm sound and checked the area where the alarm was triggered, but did not find anyone. The staff member then started a headcount by checking a roster of residents instead of first determining the location of residents equipped with electronic monitoring devices who are prone to wandering. While taking the headcount, the facility received a call from the fire department notifying them of the missing resident.

The administrator said that facility policy called for the search outside the facility and the headcount to be conducted at the same time.

Concord Extended Care had been fined $5,000 in February 2003 for failing to prevent a resident from leaving the facility unsupervised. The resident, who had a history of wandering and wore an electronic monitor, left the facility undetected and was found uninjured about a half mile from the facility. Following the incident, the facility was ordered to ensure staff were aware that in order to locate a missing resident all areas inside and outside the building must be thoroughly searched.