Jonathan Rosenfeld's Nursing Homes Abuse Blog : Jonathan Rosenfeld's Nursing Homes Abuse Blog | Lawyer & Attorney : Strellis & Field Law Firm | Bed Sores, Senior Neglect, Elder Abuse, Sexual Abuse: Chicago, Illinois

One of the most disturbing cases, my office is working on, involves a mentally and physically impaired woman who was raped by another resident at a skilled nursing facility.  As if the crime itself wasn't horrific enough, a review of the records has revealed that the other residents had complained about the individuals making sexual advances towards them-- yet the facility failed to take any actions. Lastly, the individual was a convicted sex offender, living freely and completely unknown to the other residents.

Wes Bledsoe's group, A Perfect Cause, is committed to protecting nursing home residents by protecting patients from violence.  I was honored to help Wes identify convicted sex-offenders living amongst the general nursing home population in Illinois.  Our search confirmed at least 50 sex offenders living in Illinois Nursing Homes. 

If you would like to see if there are any sex offenders living an Illinois facility, look here and cross reference with the address of the facility.

We were able to identify 50 of these offenders within hours.  Is it too much to ask, that facilities spend a few moments searching the database before accepting new residents? 

Federal law requires nursing homes provide the highest level of case possible.  In my humble opinion, this means conducting background checks of all employees and patients to assure the safest environment possible.

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In a new twist on the widely reported under-staffing in many nursing homes, some families of nursing home residents have chosen to provide supplemental care for their family members by hiring private sitters.  Similar to baby sitters, the senior sitters are intended to provide additional supervision and assistance for individual nursing home residents.  Because these senior sitters are not employees of the nursing homes, they are not regulated or subject to background checks.

The story of a senior sitter, who sexually assaulted several nursing home residents made headlines, recently.  The incident will hopefully increase public awareness about all visitors to nursing homes.  No matter how harmless or well intentioned a visitor may seem, nursing homes must take basic steps to safeguard the well being of their residents.  Nursing homes should not only keep an accurate record of visitors, but they should also keep track of the visitors whereabouts while they are in the facility.  Read more about this sad incident involving sexual assault in a nursing home here.

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More than 1,600 registered sex offenders are currently living amongst the elderly in nursing homes throughout the country according to a nursing home watchdog group. Wes Bledsoe, a nursing home safety advocate, tracked the number of sex offenders living amongst the general nursing home population by matching addresses from the sex offender registry with the Medicare database. The total number of felons living in nursing homes is even higher as many criminal convictions are not publicly available.

Currently there are no federal or state laws to keep violent offenders out of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Many of the violent offenders could be easily identified by nursing home administrators prior to their admission. Conducting a criminal background check, similar to those used for nursing home employees, would alert the facilities to those individuals who have criminal histories.

A criminal background check should be conducted universally for all nursing home residents--not just the young or able bodied. Nursing home residents are entitled to live in a safe place--free from abuse and violence. The relative cost of conducting these checks is more than justified when it comes to enhancing the safety of our elderly population.  Read more about the criminals living amongst our elderly here.

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