Sterling nursing homes fined
BY KATHLEEN A. SCHULTZ
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR
kschultz@svnmail.com
STERLING - Two nursing homes - Sterling Pavilion and Coventry Village - have been fined for failing to properly monitor some patients, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported Thursday.
In the Pavilion incident, a woman with a history of falls died Sept. 15, 2005, from a head injury sustained that day; at Coventry Village, a 64-year-old man suffering septic shock was rushed to the hospital May 26 for emergency surgery on a gangrenous scrotum.
Both are considered Type A violations of the Nursing Home Care Act, the department said in a news release. The most serious licensure violation imposed by the state, a Type A violation "pertains to a condition in which there is a substantial probability that death or serious mental or physical harm will result."
Administrators for both facilities were unavailable for comment or referred a reporter to management companies who were unavailable for comment as of press time this morning.
According to the state's release, Sterling Pavilion, 105 E. 23rd St., a 101-bed facility, was fined $40,000 "for failure to ensure that care provided to residents with a history of falls and significant injury included measures to minimize further falls."
According to investigators' findings, several residents were injured in multiple falls, including the unidentified woman. Nursing home records indicate she was found on the floor at 6:50 a.m., with a cut above her eye. She was put in her recliner, where she was found "unresponsive" 40 minutes later and taken to the emergency room. She was comatose when admitted, and died at about 11:30 a.m., investigators' records show.
According to nursing home records, the woman, who had an "unsteady gait," had a history of falling and not calling for help. She fell in February 2005 and bruised her shoulder, and in July 2005 and broke her wrist, among other incidents. On Sept. 8, a week before she died, a nursing home assessment showed she needed "limited assistance" when walking, and partial support when standing.
A care plan dated the day she died showed that staff planned to put an electronic monitor on her bed and recliner.
Another resident, an Alzheimer's patient, fell at least six times in 51 days, which resulted in multiple injuries, including a broken wrist, a cut to the head and decreased mobility; another man, who had Parkinson's and dementia, fell 12 times in five months, one time breaking his nose, records show.
Sterling Pavilion has requested a hearing on the fine. A status conference will be held Nov. 17.
Coventry Village, 612 W. St. Mary's St., a 130-bed facility, was fined $25,000 "for failure to reasonably monitor and recognize a resident's declining condition, and then use appropriate interventions," the report said. The facility also failed to notify the man's doctor of his declining health.
According to investigators' records, the man came to Coventry Village on May 1 with a variety of severe medical problems, including prostate cancer, diabetes, morbid obesity, congestive heart failure and end-stage renal failure. The evening of May 25, after complaining of pain for several days, he rolled over and staff noticed "extreme scrotal swelling." At his wife's request, he was taken to a local emergency room, then airlifted to a regional hospital for surgery. He was diagnosed with sepsis, necrotizing fasciitis, commonly known as "flesh-eating bacteria," and Fournier's gangrene, a bacteria that affects the genital region, all of which his doctors said would have taken days to develop.
Coventry also has requested a hearing; a status conference is Dec. 14.
The fines were levied in August, according to the release.
