BY ANDREW WALTERS SVN REPORTER awalters@svnmail.com
Two area nursing homes cited by the Illinois Department of Public Health for alleged acts of neglect are appealing the department's findings.
Last week, the state reported that Sterling Pavilion and Coventry Village were both cited for Type A violations of the Nursing Home Care Act following instances of alleged neglect in recent months.
"We have requested an administrative hearing to dispute the department's findings," said Rhonda Reed, a spokeswoman for Sterling Pavilion, on Friday. "We are at a stage where nothing more can be stated to the public."
Sterling Pavilion, 105 E. 23rd St., received a $40,000 fine from the department following a Sept. 15, 2005 incident in which a resident with a history of falling died from a severe head injury she incurred from a fall that day.
Coventry Village, 612 W. St. Mary's Road, in Sterling, was fined for $25,000 for allegedly failing to reasonably monitor, recognize a resident's declining condition last May, or to take appropriate action.
Likewise, Coventry Village is seeking an appeal of the findings. Keith Hufsey, assistant director of operations for Coventry Village, downplayed the significance of the citation.
"I have been a nursing home administrator for over 30 years and these releases are not at all uncommon," Hufsey said.
Since 2000 Coventry Village has been cited three times for Type A violations, while Sterling Pavilion has been cited twice.
Hufsey added that since May, new procedures have been put in place to prevent similar situations from happening again. He chalked the matter up to the practices of the previous administration at Coventry Village. Coventry's ownership changed hands in June.
"(The Department of) Public Health has been back in the building, and we had a clean slate," Hufsey said.
He added that the regulatory guidelines nursing homes are subject to by the Department of Public Health are interpretive, and that he expects the fine to be withdrawn following a Dec. 14 status hearing.
Though the fines to both institutions were levied in August, neither facility has paid them at this point.
"Type A violations are the most serious violations...It indicates a serious injury has occurred or could occur," said Robert Roiland, executive director of the Illinois Nursing Home Administrator's Association.
About one-third of the claims filed by the Department of Public Health are ultimately overturned through the hearing process, according to Roiland.
"In some cases you can have very serious situations but no element of negligence. Sometimes no matter how good your program is things happen that are unavoidable."
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