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2 Springfield area nursing homes fined for lax practices to prevent COVID-19 spread, falls

The State Journal-Register - 8/25/2021

Aug. 25—Lax precautions to prevent COVID-19 transmission among staff and residents resulted in $25,000 state fines earlier this year against two Springfield-area nursing homes.

Another central Illinois nursing home and a Jacksonville group home were fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health for inadequate precautions to prevent falls by residents.

St. Joseph's Home of Springfield, a nonprofit nursing home at 3306 S. Sixth Street Road, accepted the citations listed in a Dec. 4 inspection report and agreed to pay a reduced fine of $16,250, state officials said.

St. Joseph failed to update care plans for residents and failed to properly use personal protective equipment to reduce the spread of COVID-19, according to the state health department.

At the time of the survey, 46 residents lived at St. Joseph's; 35 had tested positive for COVID-19, and seven residents with COVID-19 had died. Thirty-four staff members had tested positive.

No one from St. Joseph's was available for comment Tuesday.

An IDPH inspection report said two St. Joseph's residents who had tested positive for COVID-19 were seen in the dining room seated close by other residents, and no residents were wearing masks.

The report also said staff members weren't properly wearing masks or wearing gloves when they passed out food trays to residents.

Sunny Acres Nursing Home, a 106-bed facility at 19130 Sunny Acres Road in Petersburg that is owned by Menard County government, is contesting a $25,000 fine. A status hearing on the case is scheduled for September.

A Dec. 7 IDPH inspection report said the facility's failure to follow guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "resulted in nurses providing direct care to highly infectious COVID-19-positive residents (and) non-infected residents at the same time, and a certified nurse aide who tested positive for COVID-19 being allowed to return to work caring for non-COVID-19 residents only six days after the onset of symptoms."

The report said the practices "have the potential to affect all 83 residents in the facility."

Sunny Acres Administrator Sarah Hoskins said the fine is too high and unjustified because "there's no factual evidence that COVID was transmitted in our building due to the deficiencies they cited."

She said nurses can safely serve COVID-19 positive and non-COVID-19-positive residents at the same time with proper use of PPE.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been 64 confirmed COVID-19 cases among Sunny Acres residents and nine deaths of residents with COVID-19, according to IDPH data.

Hoskins said her own records list 70 total COVID-19 cases among residents and seven deaths.

Among Sunny Acres workers, there have been 28 COVID-19 cases and no deaths, state officials said.

The Bridge Care Suites, a for-profit, 75-bed facility at 3089 Old Jacksonville Road in Springfield, is contesting a $25,000 fine connected with failure to properly treat pressure ulcers in seven patients. A status hearing is scheduled for September.

The facility's administrator didn't return a phone call from The State Journal-Register.

One of the seven residents, an 86-year-old woman, had a pressure ulcer in her tailbone area that became infected. The infection led to sepsis and the woman's subsequent death on Aug. 22, 2020, according to the state's Oct. 29 inspection report.

Another of the seven residents developed a pressure ulcer in the tailbone area that became infected and required hospitalization, the report said.

Still another resident developed a "deep tissue injury" to his calf after the staff failed to routinely check on the resident's skin while using a leg immobilizer. The tissue injury prolonged his stay, the report said.

Bridge Care Suites' director of nursing told a state investigator the facility didn't have any written policies or procedures related to the management of pressure ulcers or wounds once they develop, according to the report.

But the nursing director said staff members check on residents' skin and notify their doctors to prevent ulcers from developing or getting worse. The report, however, said the facility failed to notify five residents' doctors about pressure ulcers that staff members detected.

An initial $25,000 fine against Taylorville Skilled Nursing and Rehab, a for-profit facility at 800 McAdam Drive in Taylorville, was later reduced by the state to $5,000.

A spokesperson for the nursing home didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

The fine was related to inadequate supervision and a lack of interventions to prevent falls among three residents, according to the state's Dec. 17 inspection report. One of the residents broke ribs, her hip and pelvis in a fall, the report said.

Campbell Court, a group home at 426 E. Douglas St. in Jacksonville that is operated by nonprofit Community Living Options Inc., is contesting a $6,250 fine leveled by the state after a Dec. 23 inspection.

According to the report, the facility failed to properly care for a 62-year-old male resident who fell in a shower Nov. 26 and broke his leg.

Contact Dean Olsen: dolsen@gannett.com; (217) 836-1068; twitter.com/DeanOlsenSJR.

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