September 9, 1997
TWO CHICAGO-AREA
NURSING HOMES FINED
SPRINGFIELD, IL — The Illinois Department of Public Health has taken disciplinary action against two Chicago-area nursing homes:
Colonial Manor Healthcare was fined $10,000 for failing to properly monitor an 82-year- old male resident who died after he fell from the roof of the nursing home. The man had been admitted to the facility a day earlier and was placed in restraints after he broke the window in his room.
On the day he died, the man was able to free himself three different times from an emergency vest restraint. After the man escaped twice, a facility supervisor had the resident placed in his bed and restrained and ordered one-to-one observation be maintained at all times. No staff member, however, was in the room when the man again escaped from the vest restraint, opened his room window, walked out on the roof and fell from the second floor to his death.
Washington and Jane Smith Home was fined $10,000 for not training staff how to properly use a chair lift designed to help people in and out of the bathtub. Department surveyors found that a 93-year-old female resident fell out of the chair lift and hit her head on the floor because the safety belt on the chair had not been properly latched. The resident was taken to the hospital where she died from injuries sustained in the fall.
Colonial Manor Healthcare and Washington and Jane Smith Home have requested hearings on the Department's actions. No hearing dates have been set.
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Illinois Department
of Public Health 535 West Jefferson Street Springfield, Illinois 62761 Phone 217-782-4977 Fax 217-782-3987 TTY 800-547-0466 Questions or Comments |