Was your loved one the victim of mistreatment, neglect or abuse while residing in a Tazewell County nursing home? If so, the Illinois Nursing Home Law Center attorneys can provide immediate legal intervention on your family’s behalf. Our team of attorneys has extensive experience in resolving complex abuse and mistreatment cases in Illinois and can help you too.
Let us begin working on your case now to ensure your family receives adequate financial recompense for your damages. We use the law to hold those responsible for causing your loved one harm both legally and financially accountable.
If your loved one has been mistreated at Aperion Care Morton Terrace, contact our Chicago nursing home lawyers.
This Medicare/Medicaid-particitpating nursing center is a "for profit" home providing services to residents of Morton and Tazewell County, Illinois. The 166-certified bed long-term care (LTC) home is located at:
191 East Queenwood Road
Morton, Illinois, 61550
(309) 266-5331
In addition to providing 24/7 skilled nursing care, Aperion Care Morton Terrace also offers other care options including psychiatric rehabilitation, long-term care, and short-term rehab.
The federal government has the legal authority to penalize any nursing home that has violated rules and regulations that have harmed or could have harmed a nursing facility resident. These penalties include denial of payment for Medicare services or an imposed monetary fine.
Within the last three years, investigators imposed two monetary penalties against Aperion Care Morton Terrace including a $54,936 fine on April 18, 2017, and a $13,000 fine on April 19, 2016. Also, Medicare denied payment for services rendered on April 18, 2017, due to substandard care.
During the last thirty-six months, the facility received thirty-eight formally filed complaints and self-reported two 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.
Information on every intermediate and long-term care home in the state can be reviewed on government-owned and operated database online including at Medicare.gov and the Illinois Department of Public Health website. These regulatory agencies routinely update the comprehensive list of opened investigations, safety concerns, incident inquiries, health violations, dangerous hazards, and filed complaints on facilities statewide.
According to Medicare, this facility maintains an overall rating of one out of five stars, including one out of five stars concerning health inspections, one out of five stars for staffing issues and two out of five stars for quality measures. The Tazewell County neglect attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center have found serious deficiencies and safety concerns at Aperion Care Morton Terrace that include:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 15, 2018, the state surveyors documented that the facility failed to “create and implement an individualized pressure relieving methods for a resident with a known pressure ulcer.” The surveyors reviewed the facility’s policy handout titled: Pressure Ulcer Prevention that reads in part:
“Protecting against external mechanical forces: All residents in bed and who have been assessed to be at risk for skin breakdown should be repositioned at least every two hours.”
“Risk Assessment Tools: The facility should use a validated pressure ulcer assessment tool to determine the amount of risk, the degree to which mobility and activity levels are limited.”
“The Braden and Norton scales have been used extensively and are both excellent assessment tools. However, all risk factors must be assessed.”
The resident was observed “lying supine in bed on June 13, 2018, between 9:09 AM and 2:53 PM.” As a part of the investigation, the surveyors interviewed a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) that same day at 3:15 PM who stated “I feel [the resident’s] wounds were avoidable. They should be repositioning him every two hours.”
The investigative team interviewed the resident three minutes later who confirmed that he had “been stuck on his back all day.” The resident said, “ever since I broke my hip, I cannot turn myself.”
The survey team reviewed the resident’s MDS (Minimum Data Set) Assessment dated April 30, 2018, that shows a resident “as cognitively intact, at risk for pressure ulcers, and [requires] an extensive assist for mobility.” The resident’s wound care specialist evaluation dated May 7, 2018, shows that the resident has a “right buttock wound measuring 3.5 cm x 2.0 cm x 0.1 cm with the duration of one day and a left sacral wound measuring 5.0 cm .3 .0 cm x 0.1 cm.”
The facility Director of Nursing “confirmed that there was no skin assessment done for [the resident before] May 7, 2017.” Also, the resident’s “Care Plan does not include any wound or pressure relieving interventions.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated August 16, 2018, the state survey team noted that the facility had “failed to protect the resident from physical abuse for one of three abuse allegations. This failure resulted in [the resident] being physically assaulted by [another resident] resulting in a complex laceration … requiring sutures.” The investigative team reviewed the facility’s policy titled: Abuse Prevention and Reporting dated November 28, 2016, that reads in part:
“The resident has a right to be free from abuse, neglect, misappropriation of resident property, and exploitation.”
“The facility shall conduct the criminal history background on any residents seeking admission to the facility [to] identify previous criminal convictions.”
“The facility will request a criminal history background check within 24 hours after admission of a new resident; check for the resident’s name on the State Sex Offender Register Website; [and] check for the resident’s name on the State Department of Corrections Sex Registrant search page.”
The investigative team reviewed a resident’s History and Physical (H&P) involving a transfer from the hospital to the facility on November 1, 2017. The record shows that the resident was admitted, “for disorganized behavior attributed to a paranoid type [medical condition] and concern for homicidal threats toward [a family member].”
The family member had told the staff that the resident “threatened to cut [the family member’s] throat. During an evaluation by the psychiatric response team, the patient exhibited disorganized speech, was observed talking to unseen others when alone in his room and seem to minimize his psychiatric symptoms.”
A review of the resident’s Psychiatric Progress Note dated November 3, 2017 “from the admitting hospital documented” that “several days [before] admission, the resident met with [the family member] and was in a rage and demanded additional money from his social security.” The resident “eventually pulled out a knife and threatened [the family member].”
Documentation at the facility shows that a family member said that the resident “had been incarcerated a couple of times.” The family member reported that “when the patient was a resident at (a local specialize mental health facility) another resident coming into [the resident’s] room and was stealing his things.” The resident “responded with physical violence.”
The family member said that “there was another incident in which some man was trying to extort money from [the resident and the resident] ended up stabbing the man in the hand.”
The resident’s Psychiatric progress Note on the admitting hospital stated that while the resident “was a patient at (a local Specialist Mental Health Facility) in the late 1990s, [the resident] was in an altercation with another resident (with an original charge of attempted murder pleaded down to aggravated battery, Class III felony) and was subsequently sentenced to fifty-four months in prison.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 15, 2018, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to “assess for the use of side rails and the risk of side rail entrapment.” The surveyors say that the Nursing Home also failed to “inform the residents/representatives of drug use.” The survey team reviewed the facility’s policy titled: Side Rail/Bed Rails dated April 10, 2018, that reads in part:
“Ensure the appropriate, safe use of bed rails. The facility shall ensure that [before] the installation of bed rails, the facility has attempted to use alternatives.”
“After alternatives to bed rails have been attempted and do not meet the resident’s need, the facility shall assess the resident for the risk of entrapment. The facility shall provide sufficient information so that the resident or resident’s representative can make an informed decision.”
Observations were made of the resident “in bed with bilateral half side rails up on June 12, 2018, between 9:30 AM and 1:40 PM.” A review of the resident Side Rail Assessment “does not document the entrapment risk, notification of representative and what alternatives were tried before side rails were initiated.”
As part of the investigation, the surveyors interviewed the facility Director of Nursing on June 14, 2018, who said that the resident’s “side rail assessment does not document the alternatives tried because [the resident] is a large man in a bariatric bed and we did not assess for side rails. We did not assess for the risk of entrapment. The resident/representative was not notified of side rail use.”
The investigator said that the resident’s “medical record does not contain any assessment for the use of side rails” involving a second resident. The surveyors observed that resident “in bed with half side rails up on both sides of the bed on June 12, 2018, between 10:34 AM and 1:00 PM, and the following day at 9:00 AM.” The Director of Nursing stated that “no side rail assessment could be found for [that resident].”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 15, 2018, a state investigator noted the nursing home's failure to “perform hand hygiene during incontinence care for [one resident].” The nursing home also “failed to use a protective gown in isolation for one resident.” The investigators reviewed the facility’s policy titled: Hand Hygiene / Handwashing dated November 28, 2012, that reads in part:
“When to perform hand hygiene (either alcohol-based hand sanitizer or handwashing): After contact with inanimate objects (including medical equipment) in the immediate vicinity of the patient; When hands will be moving from the contaminated body site to a clean body site during patient care; and after glove removal.”
The survey team observed a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) on the afternoon of June 12, 2018, providing incontinent care for a resident. The resident “had loose stool that leaked out” from their colostomy bag. The LPN “wash fecal material from [the resident’s] skin then, with the same soiled gloves, held [the resident’s] legs to assist.”
During the care, the CNA “wiped fecal material from [the resident’s] abdomen and inner legs. Then, with the same soiled gloves, touched bare skin.” The CNA then removed their “gloves and without performing hand hygiene, left the room and obtained clean linens from the hall linen cart. Without performing hand hygiene, [the CNA reentered the resident’s] room, donned gloves, and washed fecal matter from [the resident’s] skin with soapy cloths while touching [the resident’s] bare skin with soiled gloves.”
Using the same soiled gloves, the CNA touched the resident’s “sheet and gown” then removed her gloves but “did not perform any hand hygiene [before applying] new gloves and [making the resident’s] occupied bed.”
If your family believes your loved one suffered harm or injuries while a resident at Aperion Care Morton Terrace, contact Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Nursing Home Law Center at (800) 926-7565 now. Our network of attorneys fights aggressively on behalf of Tazewell County victims of mistreatment living in long-term facilities including nursing homes in Morton. Contact us now to schedule a free case review to discuss how to obtain justice and resolve a financial compensation claim.
As your legal representative, our network of attorneys can provide numerous options to hold those responsible for causing loved one harm legally and financially accountable. Our network of attorneys accepts all nursing home abuse lawsuits, personal injury claims, medical malpractice cases, and wrongful death suits through a contingency fee agreement. This arrangement postpones the need to make a payment for our legal services until after our attorneys have resolved your case through a jury trial award or negotiated out of court settlement.
Our network of attorneys provides every client a “No Win/No-Fee” Guarantee. This promise ensures that your family will owe us nothing if we are unable to obtain compensation on your behalf. Let our attorneys begin working on your behalf today to ensure your family receives adequate compensation from those who 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