Aperion Care Oak Lawn

• Facility name: Aperion Care Oak Lawn
• Facility address: 9401 S Ridgeland Ave, Oak Lawn, IL
• Facility phone: (708)599-6700

Aperion Care Oak Lawn is a 134 bed for-profit short-term nursing care facility in Oak Lawn, IL. They boast individualized care plans to meet the residents’ personal, medical and needs while recovering.

They state they have a state-of-the-art therapy gym available 7 days a week, flat screen TVs, a full activities calendar, and transportation amenities available. As fantastic as this sounds, there are severe deficiencies in care that families of residents should know about.

Aperion Care Oak Lawn has had 47 complaints that have resulted in health department citations since 2015. These citations vary from poor infection control measures, falsified documentation of care, and even death from negligence;

02/02/2018 Failure to reasonably accommodate the needs and preferences of each resident. The hot water temperature was set to a temperature that felt cold to all of the residents surveyed. It was found that the temperature that should be set to about 110 was at roughly 95, and hadn’t been monitored regularly. Multiple residents reported bad attitudes from staff when seeking assistance to shower and go to the bathroom. Several reported being left unshowered for weeks at a time, some stated it had been months.

02/02/2018 Failure to ensure that a nursing home area is free from accident hazards and provides adequate supervision to prevent accidents. Multiple residents reported bad attitude from staff when requesting assistance transferring from a wheelchair to a bed or otherwise, so they transfer themselves. These residents have notes in their files indicating that they need assistance of at least one staff member for transfers. Transfers that were completed while the surveyor was present were mostly performed improperly, and unsafely.

12/12/2017 Failure to provide appropriate treatment and care according to orders, resident’s preferences and goals. Negligent care practices and even the falsification of records led to the death of a resident with a known heart condition that required consistent care and monitoring.

The list goes on to include failures in handwashing procedure (including between changing a dirty trash can bag, touching a resident, wiping a resident’s behind, and moving on to another room), a lack of centralized call light system leaving patients unable to call for assistance, staff has to walk halls and peek to see who needs assistance, unsanitary kitchen conditions and more.