Illinois Home Task Force issues final report

The state nursing home task force empaneled by Gov. Quinn after a series of Chicago Tribune reports on violence and safety issues in nursing homes, especially resident on resident assaults, issued its final report last week.  The panel concluded that the state's practice of housing the mentally ill alongside geriatric nursing home patients created a safety hazard and should be corrected.

The report also concluded that more stringent inspections of nursing homes was needed, and recommended hiring 79 more inspectors to get the job done.  Whether the state will find funding for these proposals is an open question.

The report will be an important part of future suits involving Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect cases because nursing home owners and administrators will no longer be able to credibly deny that the widespread practice of housing the mentally ill alongside geriatric nursing home patients creates a serious safety concern.

We have included the entire 52 page report in  the Library Section of our web site.