Some Coroners Want Illinois to Pass Law Require Investigations into All Resident Deaths For Signs of Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect
There are over 100,000 nursing home residents living in 1,200 Illinois nursing homes. While the state of Illinois doesn’t require county coroners to investigate all deaths that occur at these care facilities, some coroners want the state to pass a law making this a requirement.
One suggestion is that such a law could require nursing homes to notify coroners when a resident has died. The coroner would then have to investigate the cause of death, as well as determine whether nursing home abuse or neglect was a factor.
In Morgan County Coroner Jeff Lair makes it a point to investigate all deaths that occur in nursing homes. For example, he was able to determine that 87-year-old Bernice Mulch, who lived her last three years at Sky View Terrace nursing home until she died in 2001, may have been the victim of nursing home neglect due to the nursing staff’s failure to give her regularly prescribed antibiotics to treat an arm infection. Mulch’s friend John Whalen, who was legally in charge of her care and visited her at the Illinois nursing home every week, said he never noticed any signs indicating that nursing home workers were neglecting the elderly resident.
Out of 3,669 Illinois nursing home deaths that occurred between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008, coroners reported eight suspicious nursing home deaths in which state investigators were only able to confirm nursing care issues.
The Illinois Department of Public Health conducted a yearlong pilot project involving coroners from the following counties: Champaign, Kane, Lake, Lee, McHenry, Effingham, Kankakee, LaSalle, Mclean, and Morgan. The program encouraged coroners to investigate whether nursing home abuse or neglect was a factor in any nursing home resident’s death. While coroners reported 14 suspicious deaths, the state of Illinois was not able to verify every case. Lair says that it is not a time consuming task for an Illinois coroner to investigate each nursing home resident death.
In Cook County and many other Illinois counties, medical examiners and coroners don’t have to investigate a nursing home resident’s death unless criminal activity is suspected or the deceased’s family calls for an investigation.
Boone says nearly all nursing home deaths probed, SJ-R.com, December 7, 2008
Not all nursing home deaths receive scrutiny, SJ-R.com, December 7, 2008
Related Web Resource:
Nursing Homes in Illinois, Illinois Department of Public Health
Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Steve Malman would like to discuss your Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect case during a free consultation.
