Some Illinois County coroners would like to see a new law requiring nursing homes to report every death for investigation into potential abuse or neglect. For the full article, click here. According to the article, the Illinois State Department of Public Health conducted a pilot project in 10 Illinois counties over the course of a year to determine whether a policy to investigate nursing home deaths by a coroner Read More

Desperate to learn the truth, the family of an 84-year-old resident of a Kentucky nursing home hid a video camera in the resident's room after discovering dozens of bruises all over her body and not receiving satisfactory answers from the staff. Read the full article here. The videotape captured the staff "pulling the resident out of bed by her wrists and neck," and "roughly moving the resident from side to side," Read More

An Arizona nursing home was found with more than two dozen violations and has agreed to pay the State $17,500 in civil penalties as a result notes the Arizona Daily Star. According to the article, among the violations noted, including a failure to protect its elderly residents from sexual abuse, state inspectors found that the home also failed to timely note that a resident suffered a seizure, fell and was Read More

At trial time, Defendants may make a motion before the Court to exclude gruesome photographs of injuries. However, simply because the photograph(s) may be gruesome and possibly cause prejudice in the minds of the jury is no reason to exclude the photograph(s). See e.g. Burnett v. Caho, 7 Ill.App.3d 266, 272 (3rd Dist. 1972). Admissibility is within the discretion of the trial judge and it is common practice to Read More

As noted in a recent N.Y. Times Article, the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") noted that over 90% of U.S. nursing homes were cited for federal health and safety standards violations last year--and notably, for-profit homes had more problems. The report by HHS noted issues with pressure sores (also known as bed sores or decubitus ulcers), medication errors, and abuse and neglect among others and Read More

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") provides extremely useful information about Medicare and Medicaid nursing home providers with links to applicable laws, regulations and compliance information. You can view the main site here: www.cms.hhs.gov/CertificationandComplianc/12_NHs.asp. Most importantly, however, CMS provides a list of what is known as "special focus facilities" or a list of nursing Read More

Extensive information on Illinois nursing homes such as: Who regulates nursing homes; A list of Illinois nursing homes; How to select a nursing home; and Reports on nursing home violations can be found at the Illinois Department of Public Health's web site here:http://www.idph.state.il.us/webapp/LTCApp/ltc.jsp. When making a decision on where to send a loved one, it may be prudent to peruse this site for Read More