Illinois Governor Pat Quinn Signs Nursing Home Safety Bill into Law
This week, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed nursing home safety reforms into law. Quinn says that the “historic legislation” marks the beginning of a “new era” of nursing home care in the state.
Under the new law, the state must bring another 71 nursing home inspectors into the fold. Currently, there are 146 inspectors working. Also, psychological screenings and criminal background checks of incoming nursing home residents will become more rigorous so as to ensure that dangerous patients are screened out and housed separately from the general population. Measures are also in place to move thousands of mentally ill patients out of nursing homes and into community residential programs.
Additional issues that SB326 addresses:
• Providing each resident with enough nursing staff time to ensure he/she receives the proper nursing care.
• Establishing regulations that will discourage inadequate nursing care, while provide financial consequences for such negligence.
• Setting up additional requirements and regulations geared toward promoting patient safety, while providing elderly patients with a safe environment.
A series of Chicago Tribune articles last year made it obvious that housing young, mentally ill residents with older patients was proving harmful to the latter, with some of them becoming victims of Illinois nursing home sexual assault, rape, physical assault, and murder.
Quinn signs nursing home reform, Pantagraph.com, July 30, 2010
New Law to Improve Care, Safety for Nursing Home Residents, PR Newswire, July 29, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Illinois Nursing Homes
Our Chicago nursing home abuse lawyers continue to aggressively fight for our clients to receive the Illinois personal injury and wrongful death recovery they are owed because of Chicago nursing home neglect, abuse, sexual abuse, patient violence, and inadequate nursing care.
