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Since 1976, Steve Levin has been dedicated to helping people injured by others’ negligence. He is one of the first attorneys in the U.S. to prosecute nursing homes for abuse and negligence. He’s also helped write new legislation that governs the operation of nursing homes, including the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act. Moreover, Levin & Perconti has obtained the top three jury verdicts in nursing home negligence cases in Illinois.
Read Bio
Since 1976, Steve Levin has been dedicated to helping people injured by others’ negligence. He is one of the first attorneys in the U.S. to prosecute nursing homes for abuse and negligence. He’s also helped write new legislation that governs the operation of nursing homes, including the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act. Moreover, Levin & Perconti has obtained the top three jury verdicts in nursing home negligence cases in Illinois.
Having enough employees to give each resident the attention they deserve is critical to providing adequate care in a nursing home. When facilities are understaffed, it creates conditions that can foster abuse and neglect.
To ensure care standards are met, Illinois law requires nursing homes to maintain a minimum acceptable staff-to-resident ratio. If you suspect abuse or neglect in a nursing home, you can investigate potential understaffing and help protect your loved one’s right to attentive care.
How Does Nursing Home Understaffing Lead to Abuse and Neglect?
Many nursing home residents depend upon staff to maintain their quality of life, whether it’s needing regular supervision, mobility aids, or assistance with taking critical medications. When nursing homes are understaffed, even the most attentive and responsible caregivers can be stretched too thin, making them more likely to make mistakes, delay treatments, or fail to meet residents’ care requirements entirely.
Types of mistreatment and neglect nursing home residents often experience because of understaffing include:
- Long delays in responding to call buttons, leaving residents in immediate distress
- Increased risk of falls when staff aren’t present to assist or supervise residents
- Bed sores in residents who need regular repositioning
- Dehydration and malnutrition
- Poor hygiene, including being left in soiled clothes or bedding for significant periods
What Staffing Requirements Exist for Illinois Nursing Homes?
The letter of Illinois law requires nursing home facilities to have enough staff so that the nursing needs of all residents are met. In practice, the law assigns a minimum number of work hours to each resident based on their individual care requirements and tasks, and requires facilities to calculate the minimum staffing required.
Under Illinois’ Skilled Nursing and Intermediate Care Facilities Code, nursing homes must provide 3.8 hours of personal staff attention each day for residents who need “skilled care” and 2.5 hours for each resident who needs “intermediate care.” Licensed nurses must make up at least 25% of a facility’s care hours, and registered nurses must provide a minimum of 10% of hours.
Nursing homes are also subject to other staffing requirements based on qualifications, such as needing at least one registered or licensed nurse on duty at all times.
How Can I Find Out If an Illinois Nursing Home Is Understaffed?
One of the best ways to tell if your loved one’s nursing home is understaffed is to visit in person and observe. Coming unannounced can give you the best picture of day-to-day care at the facility, as there won’t be advance notice allowing staff to clean up signs of neglect.
Make sure to pay attention to staff behavior, noting if they seem rushed, overwhelmed, or few in number. Over multiple visits, you may observe patterns of turnover if familiar staff members are no longer around. Caregivers may even straight-up tell you that the facility is short-staffed.
You can also pull publicly available information on the facility, such as complaint reports. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provides data on staff hours reported by individual nursing homes. You can also search for a specific facility on Medicare.gov to view a “star rating” on its staffing quality based on factors like care hours per resident and staff turnover.
Concerned About Understaffing at Your Loved One's Nursing Home? Let Us Help
If you believe your loved one’s care may be suffering from understaffing at their facility, the trusted Illinois nursing home abuse lawyers at Levin & Perconti are here to fight for your family. With over 400 years of combined experience and over $2 billion recovered in verdicts and settlements, we have the track record and know-how to hold negligent nursing home operators accountable.
Contact us online or call (312) 332-2872 today to schedule your free consultation.
