Elder Law

Nursing Home Scrambles after Signs of Sexual Assaults

By Levin & Perconti

A nursing home is claiming it took extraordinary measures to protect residents when it feared that three women with Alzheimer?s disease had been sexually assaulted last fall. A police investigation and medical exams of the three women were inconclusive. The nursing home had guards at its doors to register and escort visitors, sent eight male employees home with pay and called in national experts to examine all male and female residents in the 117-bed facility. The facility also retrained staff on how to spot sexual abuse and for more than a month used a ?buddy system? to ensure that no resident was alone with an employee or visitor. Despite their efforts, the Department of Health cited the nursing home twice during its investigation for inadequate measures. The ?immediate jeopardy? citations were given because the nursing home failed to adequately protect residents and failed to take immediate corrective action. These changes were implemented because there is a growing public awareness that residents with dementia are particularly vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse. To read more about the elderly abuse, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).