ConsumerAffairs.com
With an economic downturn and all types of institutions imposing budget cuts, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is urging law enforcement and regulators to enforce state laws governing nursing homes to protect residents' health and safety.
In a letter to the directors of the Illinois State Police, the Department of Public Health, the Department on Aging and the Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, Madigan urged the agencies to join her office's new "Operation Guardian" initiative to protect Illinois' vulnerable adults living in nursing homes.
"Far too often, nursing home residents are subjected to violence at the hands of other residents and abuse and neglect at the hands of those entrusted to care for them," Madigan said. "It is the state's obligation to address these failings and ensure that nursing homes provide safe and therapeutic environments for their residents. Nursing home residents and their families depend on the state to ensure that vulnerable adults are treated with care, compassion and dignity."
Madigan recently launched an initiative to uncover serious issues at Illinois' nursing homes. Dubbed "Operation Guardian," attorneys and investigators from the Attorney General's Office and local law enforcement officials are working together on compliance checks of nursing homes that include unannounced visits to review safety and compliance issues.
Madigan said that collaboration across state agencies will provide swifter responses to nursing homes that fail to comply with the law. She also urged the other agencies to take part, noting that by bringing the expertise and authority of multiple state agencies to the operation, along with the participation of local law enforcement, they can review nursing homes, examine the services being provided to residents and quickly assess the need for further investigation of any safety or care issues.
Unannounced visits
In addition to the compliance checks, Madigan's office also began conducting unannounced warrant sweeps in nursing homes to ensure that dangerous fugitives are not living among vulnerable adults. Nursing home operators who fail to identify fugitives living in their nursing homes are in violation of state law.
The nursing home crackdown follows a report by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's office, outlining a plan to overhaul Illinois' trouble-plagued long term car system. The plan is also designed to end the state's reliance on nursing homes to house younger psychiatric patients, including those with criminal records.
The Governor's Office said it hoped to introduce a comprehensive set of nursing home safety reform bills as early as next week.
