Not all cases of neglect and abuse happening in nursing homes are obvious to identify like when the resident has a hematoma or suffers a broken bone caused by physical assault or fall. Sometimes, the family remains unaware that a loved one has been mistreated by caregivers, visitors, employees or other residents.
The Illinois Nursing Home Law Center attorneys have represented many injured victims residing in Alexander County nursing homes and can help your family too. Our team of legal experts protects the rights of our clients to ensure that they are adequately compensated for their monetary damages. Contact us now so we can begin working on your case today.
If your loved one has been mistreated at Aperion Care Cairo, contact our Chicago nursing home abuse lawyers.
This Medicare and Medicaid long-term care (LTC) center is an 83-certified bed "for profit" home providing services to residents of Cairo and Alexander County, Illinois. The facility is located at:
2001 Cedar Street
Cairo, Illinois, 62914
(618) 734-1700
In addition to providing around-the-clock skilled nursing care, Aperion Care Cairo also offers short-term rehabilitation, long-term living solutions, and psychiatric rehab.
The investigators working for the state of Illinois and the federal government have the legal authority to impose monetary fines and deny payment for Medicare services if the nursing home has been cited for serious violations of established regulations and rules. Within the last three years, the government imposed two serious penalties against Aperion Care Cairo including one fine for $118,915 on June 13, 2017, and another fine of $19,880 on March 3, 2017, for a total of $138.795.
Also, over the last thirty-six months, Medicare denied payment for services rendered on June 13, 2017, due to substandard care. The facility also received nine formally filed complaints and self-reported three serious issues that all resulted in citations. Additional documentation about fines and penalties can be found on the Illinois Department of Public Health Nursing Home Reporting Website concerning this nursing facility.
Families can review publically available data on every long-term and intermediate care facility in Illinois by visiting numerous state and federal government databases including Medicare.gov and the IL Department of Public Health website. This data is a valuable tool to use when choosing the best location to place a loved one who needs the highest level of services and care in a safe environment.
According to Medicare, this facility maintains an overall rating of one out of five stars, including one out of five stars concerning health inspections, two out of five stars for staffing issues and three out of five stars for quality measures. The Alexander County neglect attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center have found serious deficiencies and safety concerns at Aperion Care Cairo that include:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 13, 2017, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to “ensure that residents were free from staff to resident sexual and mental abuse.” The deficient practice by the nursing staff, Administrator and employees involved three of four residents “reviewed for abuse.”
The surveyor said that the deficiency “resulted in psychosocial or physical harm for [three residents] regarding them being fearful to say no to the sexual advances of the male employee, performing sexual acts despite not being comfortable doing it, and experiencing pain with sexual penetration.”
The surveyors conducted a group interview on the morning of May 31, 2017, addressing the resident mistreatment by a staff member. One resident asked, “if touching counted.” The surveyor offered to talk to the resident “privately after the interview and the [resident] accepted.” Later that day, the resident stated to the surveyor “That guy [the facility employee] touches me, he is the one who helped me get dressed. He likes to look at me. He asked me to jiggle my breasts for him and that he has asked her to kiss his personal parts.”
The resident stated that “he said to me this morning, ‘I want you to suck my d***.’” The resident also said that “she obliged [the allegedly abusive employee] and that it did not taste great, it was yucky.” The resident said that “this happened in the bathroom around 5:00 or 5:30 on May 31, 2017.”
The resident also said that “if I do not want to do it, [the employee] just says ‘okay.’” The resident also said that the employee “did not force her to do it, that she did not think he would do anything like that.” The surveyor asked the resident if the employee “had said or done anything to make her feel afraid.”
The resident described the employee “as colored and has no hair and that she thought he had been fired. The statement was then reported immediately to the facility Administrator.” The facility formulated a document “printed on the facility letterhead, dated May 31, 2017, titled: Statement from [the resident making the allegations] regarding a Sexual Abuse Allegation.”
The Director of Nursing had interviewed the resident who made comments to the surveyor. The resident reported to the Administrator that the sexual assault “ had happened three times that month, with one time being this morning. The document further states that it was explained to [the resident that the allegedly sexually assaulting employee] no longer works here, and [the resident] said, ‘I know, he was fired.’”
The document also “says that the resident denies pain, discomfort, bleeding, [and that the resident] felt embarrassed, and that the local police have been notified at 1:20 PM.” The following day on June 1, 2017, at 5:00 PM, the Administrator stated that the resident “had been interviewed again and that her statement now includes an allegation of anal sex and that [the resident] has agreed to get a rape screen.”
The Administrator stated that the resident “again reported that it was [the employee that had been fired, adding] that there is only one other male Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) here.”
A document from the Emergency Department at the area hospital dated June 1, 2017, revealed that the resident was at the facility claiming that “I am here for rape, he touched me on my breasts and put his thing in me down there.” The resident stated that “it happened three days ago.”
The resident also said that the employee “touched her and put his thing down there — the same record documents that no bodily evidence was collected. The patient stated alleged incident occurred … possibly three days ago. The patient stated she has showered and changed close several times since the alleged incident.”
A physical exam report documents “the examination of the head and face [was] negative for obvious evidence of injury or deformity, that a rectal exam and pelvic exams are negative. Documentation on the same report under History and Physical Exam” reveals when the event occurred. The report also says that the “assailant was unknown to the patient. The patient reports being penetrated vaginally. Penetrated by a penis. The reports were reported not to be consensual. The patient reports resisting the assailant.”
A local police officer interviewed the resident who said, “I was checked to see if I was raped and I was.” The resident provided the sexually abusive employee’s first name to the police and “identified him as an employee of the facility. ‘I was sitting on the toilet in the bathroom, and he comes and put his personal parts down me and looked at these (pointed to breasts).’” The resident confirmed that he penetrated her vaginally saying “he sure did, he pressed hard, and it hurt. So, I was the victim, and he was the doer.”
During an interview with the police officer, the resident stated that an incident occurred when she was taking medications and feeling groggy stating that the employee “came to my room. He came into the bathroom from the adjoining room. I was in a room by myself.” The employee “comes and says I got a half pack of cigarettes if you want to fool around.”
The resident responded to the assailant, “What do you mean?” The employee said “Straight sex or anal sex. It was about two or three in the morning. He asked me to have sex for cigarettes. I refused, he did not get mad or anything, he just left. It only happened one time about two to three months ago.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated May 25, 2018, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to “provide necessary treatment to promote the healing of pressure ulcers.” The deficient practice by the nursing staff involved one resident.
Documentation revealed that just after noon on May 22, 2018, a resident “stated that the nurses do not do the treatments to my pressure ulcers the way the doctor ordered them and sometimes they do not even get done at all.” The investigators reviewed the resident’s MDS (Minimum Data Set) dated April 23, 2018, revealing the resident is cognitively intact.
The investigators reviewed the resident’s Physician’s Order Sheet (POS) and medical records and observed a Registered Nurse (RN) providing treatment to the resident’s pressure ulcers. During the observation, it was revealed that the nurse did not follow the physician’s orders and used the wrong materials. The RN verified just after noon on May 24, 2018, that she had done the resident’s “pressure ulcer treatment incorrectly and had not followed the physician’s orders.”
The RN also confirmed that the resident’s “pressure ulcer care was not completed due to the resident being absent from the facility” on two occasions and that the wound care to the pressure ulcer had not been completed on two other occasions when the resident was asleep. There are also three times that the pressure ulcer treatment was not completed between May 6, 2018, and May 20, 2018, although there was no reason listed.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 13, 2017, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to “ensure that six residents reviewed for pneumococcal immunizations received the education addressing the benefits and risks or had the opportunity to receive the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.”
The nursing home also “failed to develop policies and procedures to include current standards of practice to ensure residents who were ineligible were offered the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.” Receiving the vaccine “would minimize the risk of residents acquiring, transmitting, or experiencing complications from pneumococcal pneumonia. This [failure] has the potential to affect all seventy residents residing in the facility.”
Do you believe your loved one suffered harm or died unexpectedly while living a resident at Aperion Care Cairo? If so, contact Illinois nursing home abuse attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center at (800) 926-7565 now. Our network of attorneys fights aggressively on behalf of Alexander County victims of mistreatment living in long-term facilities including nursing homes in Cairo. Contact us now to schedule a free case review to discuss how to obtain justice and resolve a financial compensation claim.
Our knowledgeable attorneys offer legal representation to patients with cases that involve abuse and neglect happening in public and private nursing facilities. We accept all cases concerning wrongful death, nursing home abuse, and personal injury through a contingency fee arrangement. This agreement postpones your payment for our legal services until after we have successfully resolved your case through a jury trial award or a negotiated settlement.
We offer each client a “No Win/No-Fee” Guarantee, meaning all fees are waived if we cannot obtain compensation to recover your damages. Let us begin working on your case today to ensure your family is adequately compensated for the damages that caused your harm. All information you share with our law offices will remain confidential.
Attorney Jonathan Rosenfeld
Licensed in Illinois
Chicago Nursing Home Injury Lawyer Nursing Home Law Center LLC Home