One of the most disturbing cases, my office is working on, involves a mentally and physically impaired woman who was raped by another resident at a skilled nursing facility. As if the crime itself wasn’t horrific enough, a review of the records has revealed that the other residents had complained about the individuals making sexual advances towards them– yet the facility failed to take any actions. Lastly, the individual was a convicted sex offender, living freely and completely unknown to the other residents.

Wes Bledsoe’s group, A Perfect Cause, is committed to protecting nursing home residents by protecting patients from violence. I was honored to help Wes identify convicted sex-offenders living amongst the general nursing home population in Illinois. Our search confirmed at least 50 sex offenders living in Illinois Nursing Homes.

If you would like to see if there are any sex offenders living an Illinois facility, look here and cross reference with the address of the facility.

We were able to identify 50 of these offenders within hours. Is it too much to ask, that facilities spend a few moments searching the database before accepting new residents?

Federal law requires nursing homes provide the highest level of case possible. In my humble opinion, this means conducting background checks of all employees and patients to assure the safest environment possible.