SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois Department of Public Health has fined Scotchwood Health Care Center $10,000 (Statement of Violation) for failure to follow its policy for administering life-saving treatment in a medical emergency. The 78-bed skilled and intermediate care facility is located at 1925 S. Main St. in Bloomington.

As part of an incident report investigation, Department surveyors learned a nurse did not follow facility policy or comply with a resident's care plan to initiate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or call 911 after she was found unresponsive.

The nurse said she was unaware the resident had requested life-saving measures and claimed that she never received instruction regarding the color-coding on the resident charts that designates whether or not CPR should be performed. The nurse was terminated following the resident's death.

It was also learned that the facility failed to ensure at least two staff on duty had up-to-date CPR certification. A review of employees' CPR certification status found four of nine nurses and two of 19 certified nurse aides had expired CPR cards. Twelve of the nurse aides had no evidence of ever being CPR certified.

A Department-ordered plan of correction required the facility to review it policies regarding emergency procedures, to implement a system to ensure that employees obtain CPR certification or keep certification current and to ensure there is at least one staff person on duty at all times who has been properly trained to handle medical emergencies.

Scotchwood Health Care Center has requested a hearing on the Department's action. No hearing date has been set.