Nursing Home Protection Going to Expire in Illinois
December 2, 2005
The state of Illinois doesn't have the money to create the new positions needed to fill an independent nursing home investigation division. Laws were passed three years ago creating the division but nothing was ever done and now the division will expire on July 1 without ever existing.
The division was to be a part of the Illinois Department of Public Health created to investigate allegations of sexual assaults and wrongful deaths in nursing homes. Several other states including California, Texas, Maine, Arizona and Arkansas have similar divisions that allow the state to make independent inquiries into abuse allegations.
Officials in Illinois have declared that there is nothing they can do because they lack the funds needed in order to create the division. The Bill, Senate Bill 1542, was approved in May of 2003 and signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in August of that year.
The measure had called for a specialized sexual assault and death review team to be created for nine offices located in nine different areas of Illinois. The teams were to be made of professionals from such fields as geriatric medicine, law enforcement, social services, the nursing home industry and other consumer based groups.
The division was to investigate records of all nursing home abuse cases including sexual assault and death. They were also going to review past cases of nursing home problems as well and create new legislation that would enable a more effective way of dealing with nursing home abuse cases.
In 2004 the Illinois Department of Public Health received 67 allegations of sexual assaults taking place in nursing homes.
Proponents of the bill still feel that the division can be created and hope to eliminate the expiration date of July 1, 2006 so that the state has more time to find the funds.
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