Elder Law

Illinois Nursing Home Violation: Barry Community Center

By Levin & Perconti

The Barry Community Center, a care facility in Southern Illinois, recently received several Type ?A? Violations from the Illinois Department of Public Health and fined $35,000. The violations resulted from mismanaged emergency situations at the facility which involved nursing home abuse and neglect. The Center is owned by Alden Village North, a nursing home group based out of Chicago.

Contrary to proper procedure, a resident at the facility was allowed to eat unsupervised for 30-35 minutes. When a care worker finally checked on the resident, they found her to be choking on the food. To compound the error, the nursing home staff members did not provide any quick emergency care (such as back blows) nor did they call 911. Instead they waited over an hour to call her personal physician. When the abused resident was finally brought to the hospital, it was too late. She was unresponsive and in severe respiratory stress, and she died shortly after.

Illinois nursing home investigators declared that Barry Community Center staff had been negligent in allowing the resident to eat alone, failing to give back blows when it was discovered that the resident was choking, and failing to immediately contact 911.

Many residents live in nursing homes specifically because the homes are suppose to provide the quick, expert medical care necessary in life and death emergency situations. But all too often, nursing homes fail to provide the care that residents count on. Failure to properly monitor meal times leading to a choking death is just one of many forms of nursing home negligence.

Our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti have experience fighting for victims of negligent nursing home care. Be sure to contact them or any similar attorney if you know of violations similar to the one at Barry Community Center.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators. To access the IDPH report on this violation, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on July 05, 2010 (boomark / email).