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The dignity and respect of Illinois nursing home patients are often stripped away by the nursing staff who are too busy, inattentive or fail to recognize the need to provide the highest level of care. Many facilities are overcrowded and lack sufficient staff members to ensure the health and hygiene needs of all residents are met consistently. Often times, call lights go unanswered for minutes or hours at a time, which can be stressful for residents who require assistance with toileting. The elder abuse attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers represent mistreated and abused patients who reside at Illinois nursing homes like Integrity Healthcare of Godfrey.
Integrity Healthcare of GodfreyThe Center is a ‘for-profit’ 68-certified-bed Medicare/Medicaid-accepted facility providing nursing services to residents of Godfrey and Madison County, Illinois. The nursing home is located at:
1623-29 W. DelmarGodfrey Nursing Home Resident Safety Concerns
Godfrey, IL 62035
(618) 466-0443
Families can retrieve Medicare.gov to obtain a historical list of all opened investigations, filed complaints, safety concerns and health violations of every facility in the US. The information can be used to determine the level of health and hygiene care every nursing home in the community provides its residents.
Currently, Integrity Healthcare of Godfrey maintains an overall one out of five available star rating in the Medicare star rating summary system compared to all other nursing homes nationwide. This includes three out of five stars for quality measures and one out of five stars for both health inspections and staffing concerns. The Madison County nursing home neglect attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers have found serious safety concerns and deficiencies at this facility that include:
- Failure to Ensure the Rights, Dignity and Respect of Individuality of Every Resident Are Maintained by Answering Call Lights in a Timely Manner
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated 12/30/2015, a complaint investigation was opened against the facility for its failure to "ensure the call lights are answered in a timely manner.” The state investigator’s findings included a review of the facility’s October 2015 Resident Council Meeting Minutes documenting that “it is taking too long to get call lights answered under nursing concerns. The Council Minutes dated 12/09/2015 document that timeliness in answering call lights has improved, but are still an issue with being answered in a timely manner.”
As a part of the investigation, a resident at the facility was interviewed on the morning of 12/22/2015 who stated that “she has waited for over an hour at times to have her call light answered, adding that it has caused her to ‘wet herself’ when she’s had to wait.” The resident also indicated that “the wait seems to occur most over the lunch hour.”
A different resident was interviewed that same morning and stated that “staffing is so short that she’s had to wait almost an hour to get assistance when she turns her call light on.” The resident also indicated that “nighttime is the worst.”
An incident was recorded at 1:25 PM on 12/29/2015 when a resident’s Power of Attorney (POA) “was in the hall outside [the resident’s] room stating ‘we need someone to answer this light. [The resident] needs to go to the bathroom. The call light has been on over 10 minutes. This has happened before when I have been here’.”
The investigator interviewed the facility’s Director of Nurses on the afternoon of 12/23/2015 who stated: “the facility does not have a policy on call lights.”
- Failure to Ensure Residents Do Not Develop a Facility-Acquired Bedsore or Are Provided Adequate Care to Allow an Existing Bedsore to Heal
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated 12/30/2015, a notation was made by a state investigator during an annual licensure and certification survey concerning the facility's failure to "ensure treatments are done according to physician’s orders.”
The investigator also noted the facility’s failure “to coordinate pressure ulcer care with wound clinic [and a failure] to follow prevention plans including timeliness in turning and repositioning [two residents at the facility].” The investigator noted that “this failure resulted in the decline of wound status for [a resident] on 12/17/2015, which the facility was unaware of.”
The investigator reviewed the resident’s December 2015 TAR (Treatment Administration Record) that “reflects the orders correctly for him but there are no initials or documentation on the TAR that shows the treatments were actually done except on 12/06/2015 with “HOLD” written in on December 10.” The actions by the nursing staff failed to follow the facility’s January 2014 policy titled: Decubitus Care/Pressure Areas that reads in part:
“It is the policy of the facility to ensure a proper treatment program has been instituted and is being closely monitored to promote healing of any pressure ulcer, once identified.”
If you, or your loved one, have been injured or harmed while a patient at Integrity Healthcare of Godfrey, call the Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers law firm. Our nursing home attorneys can ensure those who caused your harm will be held financially and legally accountable.
We urge you to contact our Madison County elder abuse law office today at (888) 424-5757 to schedule your free, no obligation full case review. No upfront fees are required to resolve your claim for compensation.
Sources:
http://www.idph.state.il.us/ltc/docs/SurveyResult/6001028FA12302015.PDF
