SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Illinois Department of Public Health has fined Dolton Healthcare Centre $5,000 (Statement of Violation) for failure to prevent a resident from leaving the facility unsupervised. The 80-bed skilled and intermediate care facility is located at 14325 S. Blackstone Ave. in Dolton.

Responding to a complaint, Department surveyors learned a resident wandered from the facility wearing only pants, a T-shirt and socks. The ground was covered in snow and the temperature was in the single digits at the time.

The facility did not know the resident had left until a motorist notified staff that she had seen the woman walking toward an Interstate exit ramp.

Prior to this incident, the resident had made numerous attempts to leave the facility and was able to get away four times despite wearing an electronic monitoring device and being assigned one-to-one supervision. Following these events, the facility did not reassess the resident's care plan or strategies to keep the resident from wandering.

A Department-ordered plan of correction required the facility to adequately supervise residents, and to train staff on how to assess residents for their risk of wandering and the appropriate interventions to prevent residents from leaving the facility unsupervised.

Dolton Healthcare Centre has requested a hearing on the Department's action. No hearing date has been scheduled.