A Jacksonville nursing home has received a heavy fine from the Illinois Department of Public Health. According to a report published by the Journal Courier, Aperion Care in Jacksonville was determined to be a facility to be inadequately assessing or identifying sexual vulnerability and it led to increased risk of resident-on-resident abuse and failed to implement any interventions or monitors on residents that had been cited for such abuse. The 113-bed facility was fined $25,000.
A statement of license violations said requirements were not met by the facility involving supervision of nursing services, general requirements for nursing and personal care, resident care policies, and abuse and neglect. We will have more as this story develops.
The Journal Courier reports that the incident in question is from March 9th in which Jacksonville Police were called to investigate an incident between a 72-year old woman with dementia and a 59-year old man diagnosed with schizophrenia. According to the report, a CNA said the man got into the woman’s room and shut the door in February. When the CNA opened the door, he found the man on top of the woman. The man had been noted as having inappropriate sexual behavior as well as verbal aggression before the incident in question but Aperion officials did little to mitigate his treatment plans to avoid problems. In the March 9th incident, a housekeeper found the man naked with the woman pants pulled down on her bed. After an examination by staff, they found evidence of sexual activity.
According to the report, Jacksonville Police are still investigating the incident despite the DPH fine. Comments from Aperion have not been made. A call had not been returned by Saturday morning.