Chicago Nursing Home Earns Dubious Honor of One of the Areas Worst Nursing Homes
Berwyn Rehabilitation Center, formerly known as Pinnacle Health Care of Berwyn, is a 145 bed nursing home facility located in Chicago, Illinois. According to the new ratings system instituted by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the facility is rated as a one-star facility, which indicates a "much below average facility".
According to inspections conducted by public health inspectors, the one-star rating was well deserved. A March 2008 inspection revealed 29 violations, which is twice as many as any other one-star facility in the area. The Director of Nursing hired in May 2008 said "This nursing home was really bad. Workers were punching in and doing nothing." The home has been under new management since Spring 2008 and the Director of Nursing acknowledged "The bad, bad employees we got rid of."
Of the eighty-eight residents at Berwyn Rehabilitation Center, most are unable to walk, are incontinent, and need constant care. One quarter of the residents cannot breathe without a ventilator. Sadly, most are poor and have no family to visit.
In March 2008, five state public inspectors conducted a surprise inspection on the facility. Unfortunately, the surprise was on the inspectors. First, they were greeted at the door with "an offensive urine odor" that remained throughout the day.
They entered a room where they found a 97 year old incontinent woman lying on her back in bed. Her privacy curtain was soiled and "feces was loose and completely dried on the sheet". The inspector noted a bed sore on both buttocks that was the size of a golf ball and her left heel was red and mushy. She had severe bruising on her left arm and both legs. When questioned about her bruising, one nurse and nurse aide told an inspector that they did not know how the bruises occurred. Another nurse told the inspector that the bruises were caused by a mechanical lift used to transport the resident to dialysis treatments. At dinner, the resident did not eat and told the inspector that she was in too much pain to eat.
The next day, the inspector visited the woman a second time and again found feces on her and her bed pad. She had been washed but not well. A nurse aide washed her again, but again, it was not done well. The aide also did not clean the woman's catheter tubing, which had been sitting in the feces. The resident "cried out in pain when the tubing was handled". The inspector noted that the resident did not eat at the next two meals and alerted the facility administrator. Her bedsores were worsening and she complained of pain and was lethargic. Four hours later, while undergoing dialysis, the resident's blood pressure dropped and she was unresponsive. She was taken to the hospital and admitted with pneumonia.
She was not the only resident suffering. A resident with Alzheimer's disease had a gangrenous left foot. That resident had "a large amount of loose fecal matter, which soiled the entire heel portion of her left foot dressing". When checking the resident later in the day, the inspector found the dressing still soiled and the resident "grimaced and cried in horrible pain" when a nurse changed the dressing and respositioned her foot.
Another resident had a bleeding bed sore. The facility's explanation for the lack of treatment was that the resident had refused treatment. Inspectors said that was no excuse not to address it.
Facility inspectors found that side rails were being used on the beds without any determination of whether or not the residents needed them. One resident had injured his leg after catching it in a side rail. Four months later, in July 2008, a morbidly obese resident was entrapped between the inflatable mattress and the side rails. A respiratory therapist found him and quickly deflated the mattress. He had turned blue and was transported to the emergency room, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed that he suffocated due to entrapment. Sadly, the resident's physician had ordered one-quarter length side rails for the bed to prevent falls. The rails had broken just prior to the man's death and could not be fixed, so the repairman replaced the broken rails with full side rails.
The facility was inspected again on January 25, 2009 in a surprise inspection. The results of the inspection are due to be released soon.
The Terry Law Firm is experienced in handling cases of nursing home abuse and neglect. Please contact us at 1 (888) 317-2525 or visit us at www.nursinghomejustice.com.
