Elder Law

Effect of New Illinois Nursing Home Laws

By Levin & Perconti

In several posts the past two weeks we reported on the new legislation recently passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Pat Quinn to improve safety and care at nursing homes in Illinois. The new Illinois nursing home law mandated new staffing levels at many facilities and increased background checking of incoming residents. The purpose of both prongs of the legislation was to ensure that all residents were lawfully at the facility and that sufficient resources were available to provide them with the level of care they deserved.

The effects of the new mandates are already being seen at Illinois nursing homes as several facilities begin ramping up their staff levels and quality of care measures. For example, as reported in Rockford?s Channel 13 News, the Asta Care Center in Rockford recently admitted that to comply with the new regulations, it would need to hire two to four more psychiatrists and social workers. These new workers, said an administrator at the facility, will provide more daily face-to-face interaction with nursing home residents. This increased professional care will allow the facility to properly measure the happiness of the residents of efficacy of the nursing home?s programs on health and wellness. These are small, but important steps in the effort to stop nursing home abuse and neglect.

These new requirements incumbent upon Illinois nursing homes mark the bare minimum quality of care for elderly residents at these nursing homes. The failure of many current facilities to meet these basic care standards marks the obvious problem we still have across the state in providing abuse-free treatment of our seniors.

Our Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti understand this continual fight to provide respectable care to our vulnerable seniors. We plan on working hard to ensure that the new law in Illinois is honored by nursing home administrators. If you suspect inadequate care at a facility near you, please contact our office to discuss the legal options to improve the quality of care provided to the residents at the nursing home.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on August 06, 2010 (boomark / email).