Illinois Deserves the Truth

Illinois News Roundup

The New York Times reports that 94% of nursing homes violated federal health and safety standards last year.  The rates were high for all types of facilities, but it's no surprise that for-profit homes were the worst offenders.

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Chicago-based Walgreen must pay $10 million for submitting false claims to Medicaid programs in four states.

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The editorial writers at the Southern urge the Department of Justice to investigate the Marion VA hospital deaths for criminal actions.

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The Urbana school district and negligent employees agreed to settle a lawsuit with a girl sexually abused by her former teacher, Jon White.

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A jury recently sided against the Belleville Diocese in a sex abuse trial.  With the diocese trying to wiggle its way out of taking responsibility for its actions, victim advocates want an audit conducted to prove it has the ability to pay.

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Memo to meat-eaters: beginning today, the new 'Country of Origin Label' rule will tell you the nationality of your every entree.

More Comes Out About Woodstock 'Angel Of Death'

You might remember the horrific story of elderly abuse that broke in Woodstock, where two nursing home employees were arrested in connection with as many as six patient deaths.  The Illinois Department of Public Health finally released its report, which suggests the deaths may have been intentionally caused, and far from the "mercy killings" that some made them out to be. 

A 130-page report from the Illinois Department of Public Health claims the nurse told co-workers she gave restless patients drug cocktails to keep them calm and flatly stated that "she made sure" one patient would not make it through the day.

The same nurse, when speaking about a 56-year-old patient with Down syndrome, told a co-worker "Those people aren't meant to live that long. They are meant to die in their teens and I'm going to help him along," the report states.

Reacting to the report, the IDPH fined the facility $360,000.  My first reaction was, how about compensation for the families of these poor victims?  Two have so far filed lawsuits.  My other thought brought me back to earlier this year, when our General Assembly missed a chance to strengthen the rights nursing home abuse victims to seek redress.  Remember the Nursing Home Liability Insurance bill?  It's scary to think that tragedies like this happen in Illinois, yet our nursing homes still are not required to carry liability insurance.

It’s not all Doom and Gloom in Washington

The economy may be tanking, but not everything is so bleak in the capital.  Two important consumer bills recently passed out of their respective Senate committees.  Each would go a long way in protecting the health and rights of seniors:

• The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act (S.2838), which we’ve written about before, would end the unfair, mandatory binding arbitration agreements that many nursing home corporations use to escape accountability for negligent care.  It passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• The other bill, which moved through the Senate Finance Committee, is the Herb Kohl sponsored (and Hillary Clinton cosponsored) Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act (S.1577).  This bill would establish a nationwide system of criminal background checks for people who want to work in nursing homes.

Victim's Daughter Fights Nursing Home Abuse

78 year-old Virginia Cole died suspiciously in September 2006, just two months after she moved into her nursing home in Woodstock.  When a probe opened up over as many as six suspicious resident deaths, and the facility’s nursing director and one of its nurses were arrested earlier this year on criminal neglect charges, we posted on holding the nursing home accountable for any wrongdoing.  Now it looks like that might happen. 

On Friday, Virginia Cole’s daughter filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Woodstock home and its indicted employees.  Even if we never find out what really happened to the other residents who died, hopefully this lawsuit will expose the truth about why Virginia Cole died so unexpectedly and bring peace of mind to her family.

Illinois News Roundup

Chicago drug maker Abbott Labs settled a lawsuit with AIDS patients over a 400% price hike of one of their HIV drugs.  The settlement will pay between $10 and $27 million. (Crain’s Chicago)

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United Airlines wasn't too pleased with their pilots' organized challenges to staff cutbacks.  The airline filed a lawsuit against the pilot's union yesterday in Chicago. (Tribune)

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This nurse's aide was found guilty of stealing almost $20,000 from an Alzheimer’s patient at an Elmhurst senior care center.  (Tribune)  Meanwhile, this nurse's aide stole $7,000 from a quadriplegic Chicago woman. (Sun-Times)

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Without serious reforms, climate change could cost Illinois at least $43 billion annually by the 2030s. (Tribune)

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Hartford, IL residents won a battle against yet another oil company responsible for leaving toxic waste under the town.  This time it's Apex Oil.  The cost of cleaning up their mess?  $150 million. (Belleville News-Democrat)

Fairness for Grandpa

Cross-posted from The Pop Tort by Amanda

On Thursday the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will be meeting in Washington to discuss the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act.

Arbitration is a great way for corporations – in this case nursing homes – to get away with wrongdoing and never be held accountable in a court of law.  Listen to this NPR story that focuses on arbitration in credit card contracts, and makes the same point.

Thursday's bill, S.2838 was written to eliminate the growing practice by nursing homes requiring patients to give up their right to trial by jury as a condition for their admittance to a facility.

Illinois News Roundup

You’ll remember the VA hospital in Marion, where at least nine people died because of malpractice and mismanagement.  Well, one of its overseers made the headlines this week.  No, no, he wasn’t reprimanded…he was promoted!  Senators Durbin and Obama, along with several U.S. Representatives, voiced their disapproval and asked for an explanation.  (The Southern)

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The cycle of elder abuse never ends.  99 year-old Lorraine Olsen died on Monday in Chicago’s Lincoln Square.  Her death “appears to be the result of elderly abuse”.  (Sun-Times)

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Peoria’s FOX affiliate ran an interesting segment on a much different type of elderly abuse: identity theft and the financial scamming of seniors.  (WMBD 31)

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Just a day after AT&T got caught over-billing Illinois customers, we find out that a credit card company did something strangely similar.  Trilegiant Corp. collected unauthorized charges and now must pay back the consumers they ripped off.  (Belleville News-Democrat)

New Illinois Regulation Takes On Home Care Abuse

Last week, we posted a link to a story about the national epidemic of elderly abuse by home aides and declared the need for more regulation.  This great op-ed in Peoria’s newspaper reminded me that a new law recently enacted in Illinois deserves credit.

Beginning in September this year, home nursing and home service agencies will have to be licensed to practice in Illinois.  Wow.  Seems like something we should have required long ago, doesn't it?  The Illinois Hospital Association (IHA) release included this statement,

Public Act 94-379, the Illinois Home Health, Home Services and Home Nursing Agency Licensing Act, attempts to protect patients and consumers from abuse, neglect or exploitation by workers placed in their homes by various agencies. In addition to criminal history background checks, all agencies must comply with varying degrees of regulation in the training and supervision of workers, depending upon the level of service provided by that agency.

The Illinois Department of Public Health has proposed regulations for the new licensure of these agencies, which should be finalized this summer. They can be viewed at http://www.idph.state.il.us/rulesregs/proposedrules.htm. Scroll to "Rules in the Second Notice Period."

The new law is by no means comprehensive.  Housecleaning services are exempt, for example.  Patients can also choose to forgo agencies altogether and hire unlicensed private caregivers.  Overall, though, this is a great law and just the kind of regulation we need more of.

Illinois News Roundup

A few recent stories that may pique your interest…

In a post a few weeks ago, we mentioned the story of a 77-year-old who was beaten to death in his Chicago nursing home, presumably by a roommate with a history of dementia.  His family has filed a lawsuit against the nursing home for pairing their Alzheimer's-stricken relative with the dangerous roommate. (Tribune)

Poor living conditions at the Cook County Jail violate prisoners’ constitutional rights, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.  Their investigation uncovered physical abuse by staff, insufficient medical care, and poor sanitation. (Chicago Public Radio)

The Tribune reports that the state’s largest psychiatric hospital left sexual predators unattended, even though they knew of at least 10 mentally disabled children who were assaulted over the last three years.  We commend the Tribune, whose findings led the hospital to “immediately impose changes, including new training for child-protection workers and better reporting of assault allegations.” (Tribune)

We’ve written a lot about nursing home abuse, but here’s a frightening article on elderly abuse by home aides.  Read this and try to argue that we don’t need more regulation over the elderly care industry! (Wall Street Journal)

Update: Scheduled Hearings on Arbitration Bills

Good news for Average Joe... a House subcommittee approved three bills that would help keep the court doors open for consumers who are abused and/or scammed by corporate wrongdoing.  The bills are:

• The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007 (H.R. 3010)
• The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2008 (H.R. 6126)
• The Automobile Arbitration Fairness Act of 2008 (H.R. 5312)

Each of the bills now moves on to the full committee for action.  See Public Citizen’s press release for more on this step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, in the other chamber, the Senate Judiciary Committee will take a look at their version of the nursing home arbitration bill (S. 2838) in a meeting scheduled for today.