Many families turn the provisions of care over to medical professionals in Macon County nursing homes to ensure their loved one receives the best services in a compassionate, safe environment. Unfortunately, there has been a significant rise in the number of incidents where caregivers, employees, visitors and other patients abuse, neglect or sexually assault unsuspecting residents.
If you suspect that your loved one was victimized while residing in a nursing home, contact the Illinois Nursing Home Law Center attorneys for immediate legal intervention. Our team of nursing home attorneys has successfully handled and resolve cases exactly like yours. Let us work on your behalf to ensure your family is adequately compensated for your damages in those responsible are held legally accountable.
This Medicare/Medicaid-participating long-term care (LTC) center is a 126-certified bed "for profit" Home providing services to residents of Decatur and Macon County, Illinois. The facility is located at:
500 West Mckinley Avenue
Decatur, Illinois, 62526
(217) 875-0020
In addition to providing 24/7 skilled nursing care, Generations at McKinley Court offers other services including:
Illinois and federal investigators have the legal authority to penalize any nursing home with a denied payment for Medicare services or a monetary fine when the facility is cited for serious violations of established regulations and rules that guarantee resident safety.
Within the last three years, Generations at McKinley Court received forty-one 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.
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, one out of five stars for staffing issues and four out of five stars for quality measures. The Macon County neglect attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center have found serious deficiencies and safety concerns at Generations at McKinley Court that include:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated October 18, 2018, the state investigators noted that the nursing facility had “failed to ensure the resident was free from abuse from facility staff.” The deficient practice by the nursing staff involved one patient “reviewed for abuse.”
The investigators reviewed the cognitively intact resident’s MDS (Minimum Data Set) Assessment and BIMS (Brief Interview of Mental Status) and interviewed a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) on the morning of October 17, 2018. The CNA said that “I asked [another CNA] to help me with something.” That CNA “got mad at me and said to me I am done with you.” At that time, the verbally abusive CNA “threw her arms up in the air. I was crying and upset for about ten or fifteen minutes after it happened.”
The surveyors interviewed the Clinical Support Supervisor who said that “on Sunday, October 14, 2018, after breakfast, I heard a staff member in a resident’s room.” That CNA “was being belligerent and rude [and] was yelling, ‘I am done with you, I am done with you.’” The verbally abusive CNA “was throwing [their] arms up in the air.” The clinical support supervisor said they told the verbally abusive CNA to stop and told them “to clock out and go home.”
The supervisor said they reported the incident to the Director of Nursing and the Administrator on October 15, 2018.” As a part of the investigation, the surveyors interviewed the facility Administrator who stated: “an investigation was initiated on October 15, 2018” regarding the abusive CNA and the resident.
The investigators reviewed the facility’s policy titled: Abuse Prevention Program updated on November 26, 2016, that reads in part: “This facility prohibits mistreatment, neglect, exploitation, misappropriation of resident property, or abuse of its residents.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated October 18, 2018, the state investigative team documented that the facility had failed to “provide a nutritional intervention for a pressure sore.” The deficient practice by the nursing staff involved one resident “reviewed for pressure injury.”
A review of the facility’s Wound Doctor Note dated October 12, 2018, revealed that a resident “has a Stage IV pressure injury on their sacrum which measured 1.8 cm x 1.5 cm with a depth of 0.2 cm.” The Registered Dietitian Note dated August 22, 2018, for the patient documents “reviewed for sacral wound, stage IV, declining continues multivitamins with minerals, Prostat (nutritional supplement) three times daily, a regular diet with fortified pudding” twice daily.
The surveyors interviewed the resident at lunchtime on October 15, 2018, who said they are “supposed to have pudding at lunch and did not receive it.” The following day at the same time, the resident was eating lunch but “did not have pudding on their lunch tray. At that time, [a Restorative Aide and the resident confirmed that the patient] was not served pudding for lunch.”
The facility Director of Nursing confirmed that the patient had a physician’s orders on how to best treat the pressure wound. The investigators reviewed the facility’s policy titled: Pressure Ulcer Treatment and Management that reads in part:
“Residents with pressure ulcers will be determined to be at high risk for pressure ulcer prevention and all components of the At-Risk protocol will include nutritional support.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated October 18, 2018, the state investigators documented that the facility had multiple failures that required “more than one deficient practice statement.” The nursing home failed to “implement relative interventions following a burn from a coffee spill.” The surveyors say that the facility “failed to use a gait belt while transferring a resident from the bed to a wheelchair.”
In one case, the surveyors reviewed a resident’s Progress Notes dated on the morning of August 19, 2018, that shows that the patient’s “lap was assessed for blisters and a rash related to a coffee spill.” The patient’s “left inner thigh was red with several small intact blisters and measured 17.0 cm x 19.0 cm x 0.0 centimeters” in size.
The resident’s Care Plans document that the resident “is at risk for self-injury due to [their medical condition] to the spilling of hot liquids. This Care Plan documents [that the resident] is to use lids to cups when transferring hot liquids from the dining room to [their] room.”
A Registered Nurse (RN) providing the resident care stated that the patient “is unaware of anything done to prevent spills, and the coffee is served hot.” The resident said that they “spilled the coffee while at breakfast, [and do not] bring hot drinks back to [their] room.” The resident also stated that they do “not use lids on coffee cups.”
The investigators interviewed the facility Director of Nursing who said that “the intervention of using the lids to cups when transporting hot liquids was not appropriate for this incident since [the patient’s] burn was while sitting at the table and not during transportation.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated October 18, 2018, a state surveyor noted the nursing home's failure to “document clinical indicators, infectious organisms, precautions, and complete data analysis and surveillance of infections. This failure has the potential to affect all ninety-five residents who reside in the facility.”
In one incident, surveyors observed, interviewed and reviewed records of the facility and showed a failure to “provide hand hygiene following toileting and before dining for one of nineteen residents reviewed for infection control.” A review of the facility’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program dated November 2017 reveals that:
“The facility is committed to minimizing or preventing risks associated with the unnecessary or prolonged use of antibiotics through the use of an antimicrobial stewardship program. This policy also documents clinical representatives assigned to duties of managing the antibiotic stewardship log all new/change anti-infective orders on the Infection Control Log.”
As a part of the investigation, the surveyors reviewed the recent Infection Control Tracking. This Note contains a Summary Report that documents “the number of specific infections and whether the infection was present on admission or acquired along with an Antibiotic Medication Report the documents the Anti-Infective that was ordered.” However, the surveyors say that there “is no documentation that a culture was obtained, what organism is being treated, or any precautions that were initiated.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated November 3, 2016, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to “safely transfer one of four residents reviewed for falls.” The investigators reviewed the facility’s undated Resident Transfer Status Policy that reads in part:
“Nursing assistants will routinely transfer residents based off of a visual cue above the resident’s bed. Transfer status will change based off a resident’s ability to perform. As transfer status needs to be adjusted, the number above the bed will be changed to correlate with the new transfer status.”
The investigative team reviewed the resident’s MDS (Minimum Data Set) Assessment that shows the patient “requires the extensive assist of two people for transfers.” On October 31, 2016, two Certified Nursing Assistants assisted a resident “with a transfer from the bed to a wheelchair.” The patient “was assisted to a standing position on the side of the bed. A gait belt was applied around [the resident. Both CNA’s] then placed their arms underneath [the patient’s] arms and grabbed the gait belt and lifted [the patient] from the bed.”
During the transfer from the bed to the wheelchair, the patient’s “feet and legs were drawn up and did not touch the floor. At that time, located above [the patient’s] bed was a sign which stated Number 2.”
A subsequent transfer from the bed to the wheelchair occurred three days later around noon where two Certified Nursing Assistants used the same technique of placing their arms underneath the resident’s arms and grabbing a gait belt. At that time, the CNAs asked the resident to stand. However, the resident “did not stand or attempt to stand.” At that time, the resident’s “feet and legs were drawn up and did not touch the floor.”
During an interview with the Certified Nursing Assistant, it was revealed that the resident “has always drawn her legs and feet up during transfers since she has worked with [the resident].”
As a part of the investigation, the surveyors interviewed the Physical Therapist who said “if a resident is a ‘stand to transfer’ and they will not stand or if they are picking up their feet, I would recommend a mechanical lift. I would not recommend proceeding with the transfer if [the resident] draws up their feet. [Instead,] I would redirect [the resident until the resident] stood up. Proceeding with the transfer when the legs are drawn up could cause shoulder injury, injury to the ribs, they could drop the resident or injure themselves.”
The investigators interviewed the Regional Director who stated “a Number 2 above the resident's bed signifies that the resident is a Number 2 transfer. An ‘H’ above the resident’s bed signifies a full mechanical lift and an ‘S’ signifies a ‘sit-to-stand’ mechanical lift.”
Was your loved one neglected, abused or mistreated while residing at Generations at McKinley Court? If so, call the 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 Macon County victims of mistreatment living in long-term facilities including nursing homes in Decatur. Contact us now to schedule a free case review to discuss how to obtain justice and resolve a financial compensation claim.
Our experienced attorneys provide victims of nursing home abuse the legal representation they need against all those who caused them harm. Our network of attorneys can offer numerous legal options on how to proceed to obtain the financial compensation your family deserves. We accept all nursing home cases involving personal injury, abuse, and wrongful death through a contingency fee arrangement. This agreement will postpone 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.
We offer every client a “No Win/No-Fee” Guarantee. This promise ensures that you will owe us nothing if we cannot obtain compensation on your behalf. We can begin working on your case today to ensure your family receives monetary recovery for your damages. 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