There is an increasing need for additional nursing home beds all across the United States. The rising number of individuals reaching their final years has caused significant issues including understaffing at nursing facilities nationwide. As a result, many families are unaware that their loved one is mistreated, abused or neglected in the nursing home due to a lack of sufficient staff or supervision.
If your loved one was harmed through abuse or mistreatment while residing in a Cook County nursing home, the Illinois Nursing Home Law Center attorneys can provide immediate legal intervention. Contact us now so we can begin working on your case today. Our team of attorneys will use civil tort law to help your family seek justice and obtain financial compensation to recover your damages.
If your loved one has been mistreated at Arbour Health Care Center, contact our Chicago nursing home abuse attorneys.
This long-term care (LTC) facility is a "for profit" 99-certified bed long-term care center providing cares and services to residents of Chicago and Cook County, Illinois. The Medicare/Medicaid-participating home is located at:
1512 West Fargo
Chicago, Illinois, 60626
(773) 465-7751
In addition to providing around-the-clock skilled nursing care, Arbour Health Care Center also offers long-term care, respite care, hospice care, and short-term rehabilitation.
Both the federal government and the state of Illinois can impose monetary fines or deny payments through Medicare of any nursing facility that has been found to violate the established nursing home rules and regulations.
Within the last three years, Arbour Health Care Center received twenty-two formally filed complaints due to substandard care. Additional documentation about fines and penalties can be found on the Illinois Department of Public Health Nursing Home Reporting Website concerning this nursing facility.
The state of Illinois routinely updates their long-term care home database systems to reflect all safety concerns, incident inquiries, opened investigations, filed complaints, dangerous hazards, and health violations. This information can be found on numerous sites including Medicare.gov and the Illinois Department of Public Health website.
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 four out of five stars for quality measures. The Cook County neglect attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center have found serious deficiencies and safety concerns at Arbour Health Care Center that include:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated April 12, 2018, a state investigator noted the nursing home's failure to “ensure that wound care treatment was performed as ordered and failed to ensure the low air loss mattress was in place as ordered.” The deficient practice by the nursing staff “affected one resident of two residents reviewed for pressure sores.”
The investigator reported that the failure caused the resident’s “Stage IV left ischium and Stage IV right ischium pressure sores to decline and increase in size.” A review of the resident’s medical records and an interview with the Wound Care Nurse on April 10, 2018, revealed that the resident “was admitted to the facility with left ischium and right ischium pressure sores. A document dated May 23, 2017, titled Nursing/Weekly Skin Assessment” shows that the resident “was admitted to the facility with three Stage IV pressure sores which included right and left heel areas.”
A review of the resident’s Census Activities Sheet indicates that between December 6, 2017, and April 11, 2018, the resident “has remained in the facility without any admissions to a local hospital.” On April 10, 2018, at 10:45 AM, a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) confirmed that the resident “was transferred out on two dates for issues with his suprapubic catheter.” However, the resident “was not admitted to the hospital and returned to the facility the same day.”
On that date, the LPN confirmed that if the resident’s “bilateral ischium pressure sores worsened that it was not due to a hospital stay and that the worsening would have occurred in the facility.” During an interview with the resident, it was revealed that they do “not have an air mattress” stating the “air mattress had a hole in it.”
The resident said that the “maintenance man removed it, and it has been [gone] about a month. He did not get a chance to ordered. The facility knows about it.” The resident said that “he will get in bed at 7:00 PM and stay in bed until 7:00 AM -- 8:00 AM the next morning.” The resident also indicated that when they get really tired, they “will get back into bed after lunch from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.”
Documentation shows that “on April 9, 2018, and April 10, 2018, it was noted that [the resident] did not have a low air loss mattress.” The surveyors saw the resident’s “bed frame had an air mattress machine hanging on the footboard. The machine was not connected to the mattress.” Instead, the resident’s “bed had a standard mattress.”
The team of investigators interviewed the Maintenance Director on April 10, 2018, who “indicated that he was not aware that [the resident] needed a new air mattress.” The Director said that the former Maintenance Director “no longer works in the facility.”
The Director of Nursing said that the resident’s “left ischium pressure sore declined and increased in size four times and the right ischium pressure sore declined and increased in size three times.” The Director said that the resident’s “left heel [wound] declined four times as evidenced by wound measurements that were documented in [the resident’s] Weekly Skin Assessments.”
During an interview with the facility Wound Care Doctor on April 11, 2018, the doctor said the “air mattress was ordered. Air mattresses are beneficial for Stage IV wounds because air mattresses are usually off-loading. They redistribute pressure. It is better for moisture …to keep the wounds from getting worse. Worsening of sores can occur if [the resident rests] on a regular mattress.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated March 9, 2017, the state investigators noted that the nursing home failed to “ensure safety practices were followed by not ensuring sharp scissors were not accessible to one resident.” The investigators also said the facility failed to “ensure a medication syringe was secured safely for one resident.”
The survey team said the facility “also failed to ensure potentially hazardous chemicals were stored securely out of reach from [another resident] reviewed for safe storage of a chemical.” The investigator conducted an initial tour at the facility on March 6, 2017, with the facility Director of Nursing at 10:10 AM.”
At that time, one resident was noted as “sitting at the nurse’s station with a pair of sharp scissors attempting to cut the shoelace of another resident.” One minute later, the Director said that “the residents are not allowed to have scissors” saying that no resident should “have scissors and is observed taking the scissors from [the resident’s] hand and pass them to [a Registered Nurse (RN)] in the unit.”
Two days later on March 8, 2017, just before noon, investigators performed an Accucheck observation of a different Registered Nurse (RN) where a resident had “a large bottle of liquid Lysol solution of the bedside.” The Registered Nurse was asked if the resident “should have this product.” The RN replied “No, it should not be at the bedside. When I did my rounds this morning, I did not see that solution.”
The investigative team documents that on March 8, 2017, just about noon, “an insulin syringe with insulin intended for [a resident] was observed unattended [on that resident’s] bedside table out of visual control of [the nurse].” Approximately three hours later, the same RN “said that I should not have left the syringe [at the resident’s] bedside.” The following day, the Director of Nursing presented “a document that states that the scissors [involving the first resident] were confiscated by [the facility Director].”
The investigative team reviewed the facility’s policy titled: Self-Administration of Medication. The policy reads that the “interdisciplinary team has to make the determination of self-administration” and not the Director of Nursing involving the resident with the scissors or the Registered Nurse they left the insulin in a syringe unattended by the resident’s bedside.
In a separate summary statement of deficiencies dated March 1, 2017, the state investigative team documented that the nursing home had failed to “implement Care Plan interventions to prevent a resident’s fall.” This failure “applies to one of two residents reviewed for falls.”
A resident was observed walking into the Third Floor day room for lunch assisted by a Rehabilitative Aide around lunchtime on March 1, 2017. At that time, the resident “had no socks or shoes on.” The resident’s “blue jeans were wet in the back crotch area” when the resident sat down “in the day room.” The resident “ate his lunch in wet pants, [with] no socks or shoes.”
The resident’s clinical record recorded that the individual had six falls between May 13, 2015, and January 23, 2017. A review of the Fall Occurrence Report Investigation dated January 22, 2017, revealed: “the environmental factor involved in the fall was footwear.” The resident’s January 26, 2017, Care Plan says the nursing staff should “ensure the use of proper footwear.”
The investigators interviewed the facility Director of Nursing and discussed the resident’s falls. The Director said that until the resident’s “change of condition after December 24, 2016 fall and hospitalization, [the resident’s] fall interventions were not changed.” The investigators reviewed the facility’s Fall Policy that “does not require fall assessment, investigations or a Care Plan change after falls without injury” in violation of federal and state laws.
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated March 1, 2017, the state” the investigator said that this failure “has the potential to affect four residents residing in a room identified with bedbugs.”
The state investigative team interviewed the Director of Nursing who said that “the facility recently had a bed bug [infestation] in a resident’s room [#108] on February 1, 2017.” The Director said that the residents “were removed from the room,” their “clothing was laundered, and they were showered. The facility calls an outside exterminator to kill bed bugs.”
One resident that was sent to the emergency room was interviewed by the surveyors who “confirmed that he was sent out to the emergency room because of bed bug bites. Hospital records were reviewed and confirmed what [the resident’s] said.”
The survey team interviewed the Maintenance Director who said, “he has a spray that he uses to kill the bed bugs.” The Director said, “he found bed bugs in the resident room #108… and sprayed the room then.” However, the Director said that “he did not find nor spray for bedbugs in room #108 on February 1, 2017.”
Do you believe that your loved one suffered abuse, mistreatment or neglect while living at Arbour Health Care Center? If so, call the law offices of 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 Cook County victims of mistreatment living in long-term facilities including nursing homes in Chicago. Contact us now to schedule a free case review to discuss how to obtain justice and resolve a financial compensation claim.
Our dedicated lawyers can work on your behalf to file and resolve your claim for compensation against all those that caused your loved one’s harm, injury, or premature death. We accept every case involving nursing home abuse, wrongful death or personal injury through a contingency fee arrangement. This agreement postpones the need to make a payment to pay for legal services until after your case is successfully resolved through a jury trial award or negotiated out of court settlement.
We provide all clients a “No Win/No-Fee” Guarantee, meaning you 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 Attorney Nursing Home Law Center LLC Home