Thursday, January 14, 2010

IL Nursing Home Under Federal Investigation

A team of at least seven federal investigators has been scouring the records of a troubled North Side nursing home in response to Tribune reports and a Chicago alderman's complaints about problems in the facility.

The team from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, has spent the week performing an unusual special audit and inspection of Somerset Place, 5009 N. Sheridan Road., that may extend into next week, government sources told the Tribune.

Federal officials declined to comment on the probe or what specifically investigators are targeting at the facility. But state Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said federal authorities asked state officials to postpone their own enforcement actions against Somerset until the federal probe is complete.

"The facility has been a concern to the state and the feds," Arnold said.

Somerset's owners and administrators did not respond to requests for comment, but in the past they have defended the operations of the home.

Specializing in mentally ill adults, Somerset had 66 felons among its roughly 400 residents in December and has been cited repeatedly for patient safety violations, state records show.

Full Article and Source:
North Side Nursing Home the Target of Federal Investigation

5 comments:

Thelma said...

"Unusual" special audit - that's the problem today: government is not doing enough to protect its vulnerable citizens.

StandUp said...

At last!

jerri said...

this is very good news nothing like a nice long visit from the feds to get their attention interesting CMS is involved could there be some "problems" with medicaid and medicare? we need to thank the chicago tribune investigative reporters for their relentless efforts and their bosses at the paper who approved their stories being published applause and standing ovation folks

Anonymous said...

I love reading good news!

Betty said...

There have been an increasing awareness lately in regard to nursing facilities. Il ran a series not that long ago.

This is very good.