SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The Illinois Department of Public Health has fined Riverview Terrace $10,000 (Statement of Violation) (Statement of Violation) for failure to prevent a resident from leaving the facility unsupervised and to provide a safe environment. The 16-bed intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled is located at 201 Spring St. in Rosiclare.

Department surveyors learned a resident left the facility and day training programs on at least four occasions without staff's knowledge. One-to-one supervision was not implemented until the resident stole a bicycle from a nearby utility shed and rode across a heavily traveled highway.

Despite the resident's behavior, the facility did not develop objectives to help the resident acquire community safety skills.

The facility also failed to safeguard a resident from physical assault by another resident. A resident alleged seeing another resident cover the man's face with a pillow and punch him in the stomach. The victim also told an employee that someone had "clobbered him." The employee said the incident was not immediately reported to her supervisor because she said the resident often made such statements even when he ran into something. She also thought the witness had already reported the incident to other staff.

Once the facility's residential services director was made aware of the allegation, she did not initiate an investigation for a couple days and did not immediately notify the Department as required by state law.

A Department-ordered plan of correction required the facility to take all necessary measures to ensure residents are protected from neglectful or abusive situations. In addition, staff was to be trained on procedures for missing persons and one-on-one supervision, on the incident report investigation policy and proper documentation of events, and on the reporting process for an incident or allegation of abuse.

Riverview Terrace has requested a hearing on the Department's action. No hearing date has been set.