The Basics of Nursing
Homes
What is a nursing home?
• Facility that provides 24 hour care
• Staffed by licensed nursing professionals
• Residents may receive assistance with any
and all tasks of daily living
What is a nursing home?
• What is a nursing home not?
– Assisted living/Supportive living – 210 ILCS 9
• Private rooms
• Residents get assistance with limited tasks
– Independent living community
• Private apartments
• No assistance with tasks of daily living
• Communities/buildings with an exclusively senior
population
Nursing Home Specialties
Behavioral health
– Units with a special proficiency in caring for persons with
severe mental illness
• Subpart S of Skilled Nursing and Intermediate Care Facilities
Code
Memory Units
– Units with a special proficiency in caring for seniors with
Alzheimers or dementia
• Subpart U of Skilled Nursing and Intermediate Care Facilities
Code
Non-Specialized Skilled Nursing
– Highest level of certification for facilities
Residents’ Rights
Goal of Residents Rights
– Nursing home residents should be able to make all the same
decisions and have the same options as people living in the
community
Many rights can be limited by a guardian
– But a guardian can exercise all these rights on behalf of
the ward
Residents’ Rights
• All rights guaranteed by the Constitution
– 210 ILCS 45/2-101
• Manage own financial affairs – 210 ILCS 45/2-102
– Can choose to have nursing home manage
finances
• Keep own personal property – 210 ILCS 45/2-103
– Facility is required to provide storage and
safeguarding
Residents’ Rights
• Have your own physician – 210 ILCS 45/2-104
– Nursing home does not have to let your
physician practice in the nursing home but you
must be able to go and visit your physician if
you so choose
• Participate in the planning of your care – 210
ILCS 45/2-104
– Go to care plan meetings
– Get information about side effects etc.
Residents’ Rights
• Be free of experimental treatment without your
consent – 210 ILCS 45/2-104(a)
• Refuse medical treatment – 210 ILCS 45/2-104(c)
– Including psychiatric medications
• Freedom from unnecessary drugs – 210 ILCS 45/2-106.1(a)
• Informed consent to psychotropic medication –
210 ILCS 45/2-106.1(a)
• No ID wristlet unless specifically ordered by
physician – 210 ILCS 45/2-106a
Residents’ Rights
• Regular re-screening if diagnosed with a
serious mental illness – 210 ILCS 45/2-104.3
• Respect – 210 ILCS 45/2-105
• Privacy– 210 ILCS 45/2-105
• Confidentiality - 210 ILCS 45/2-105
Residents’ Rights
• Freedom from restraints if used for – 210 ILCS 45/2-106(b)
– Punishment
– Convenience of facility personnel
• Restraints may be used only if ordered by a
physician - 210 ILCS 45/2-106(b)
• Some facilities have instituted a “restraint-free”
policy
– There is no certification for this
Residents’ Rights
• Inspect and copy resident’s own clinical records
– 210 ILCS 45/2-104(d)
– Nursing home can charge a statutory fee for copies
• Unimpeded, private and uncensored
communication – 210 ILCS 45/2-108
– By mail
– By telephone
– By visit
• Including the right to reside in the same room if two
residents are married
Residents’ Rights
• Right to free exercise of religion, including – 210
ILCS 45/2-109
– Arrangements to attend religious services
– Freedom from imposition of religion
• Right to receive notice prior to involuntary
discharge – 210 ILCS 45/3-402
• Freedom to be discharged after giving notice –
210 ILCS 45/2-111
• Right to refuse to perform labor – 210 ILCS 45/2-113
• Right to air grievances – 210 ILCS 45/2-112
What Can You Do If
Rights Are Violated?
• Complain to Illinois Department of Public
Health
• Call the Long Term Care Ombudsman
• Sue under the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act
Long Term Care
Ombudsman
• What are our goals?
– Empower residents to advocate for themselves
– Advocate for residents
– Improve quality of life for residents
• What do we do?
– Intake line
– Visit nursing homes and assisted/supportive living
• Quarterly visits are required
– Investigate and potentially respond to specific complaints
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Look at records
Speak to family/friends/nursing home staff
File/prepare public benefits applications
Represent in administrative hearings
File suit in circuit court
How to contact us
• Chicago Ombudsman
– (312) 744-4016
– Regional Ombudsman – Bernard Cobbins
• Bernard.cobbins@cityofchicago.org
• Suburban Cook County Ombudsman
– (888) 401-8200
– Regional Ombudsman – Kathy Swanson
• kswanson@lafchicago.org
• Where to find Ombudsman contacts for other
counties
– http://www.cbrx.il.gov/aging/1directory/ombudsmen.pdf
Key Points To Know
About the Ombudsman
• We are resident-directed
• We will always talk to the resident to get
permission to investigate
– EVEN if there is a guardian
• We can take direction from a guardian once
we determine that a resident cannot assist us
or if the Resident agrees
Working Together
• What we can do
– Refer relatives/friends of residents to programs which
can help them get guardianship (eg CVLS)
• What you can do
– Be a complainant when you see/hear something wrong
• Need not be directly related to the guardian/ward relationship (ie
concerns which you could not bring to the probate judge)
– Refer guardians to long term care Ombudsman
• Use the relationship you have built to get them to assistance
• We can provide specific nursing home related information
• We can direct a guardian to appropriate resources
Thank you!
Questions?
Please feel free to contact me with
further questions at:
mfarbstein@lafchicago.org