Required viewing for anyone considering placing a loved one assisted living: Life and Death in Assisted Living – a one-hour news feature on what is described as a “loosely regulated billion dollar industry.”
As a nursing home lawyer, I’ve spent more hours than most people in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, but I was still unprepared to learn about the depths that the industry will sink to in the name of ever-growing profit.
One of the most shocking findings revealed in the piece is the “Close the Back Door” policy. In the parlance of assisted living facilities, the “back door” is where residents leave the facility. The assisted living chain highlighted in the report, Emeritus Assisted Living, is a massive chain of assisted living facilities.
In order to maximize profits, these facilities are told to retain residents at all costs. That includes residents who are deathly ill and in need of hospital care.
In one reported case, a resident with serious bed sores was being kept in the facility. Staff members with no medical training whatsoever were in charge of her care, and the depth of her illnesses were hidden from her husband and other family members.
Repeatedly in internal memos, the emphasis is clear: Keep residents from moving out. Repeatedly, regulators have cited Emeritus facilities for housing residents who should be in hospitals or nursing homes, but the trend continues. When you consider the cost ($3,000 to $9,000 monthly) it’s easy to see why an assisted living facility will happily pay the modest fines imposed by most state health departments.
At my law firm we operate on a contingency basis. That means that unless we earn a recovery for your, we will not charge you any fee. If you have a loved one who has been the victim of nursing home neglect in an Illinois assisted living facility, contact our nursing home lawyers for a free and confidential evaluation of your case.