Symphony at Evanston

• Facility name: Symphony at Evanston
• Facility address: 820 Foster Street, Evanston, IL, 60201
• Facility phone: (847) 492-7700

Symphony at Evanston is a 158-bed nursing home facility in Evanston, IL. This facility offers post-acute care and rehabilitation, along with long term residential care. Their website advertises that their “guests” will feel like they are in a fine hotel, with an emphasis on tranquility, serenity, and comfort. They are “one of the country’s most innovative leaders in post-acute care and management services… working to provide the best possible outcomes for our guests.”

While Symphony at Evanston is one of the Symphony Networks’ higher rated facilities according to Medicare.gov, this doesn’t make them immune to deficiencies in care.

07/13/2018 Failure to develop the complete care plan within 7 days of the comprehensive assessment; and prepared, reviewed, and revised by a team of health professionals . Multiple residents with a high fall risk and multiple falls did not have any modifications to their care plans following falls; resulting in repeated incidents and risky situations. One resident with severe cognitive impairment (dementia) experienced an unwitnessed fall requiring hospitalization for a fractured tibia, no updates to her care plan were made upon her return, and no risk assessment was made.

A male resident with dementia had a total of 11 unwitnessed falls from July 2017 to June 2018, with no meaningful updates to the care plan.

Another resident with significant cognitive impairment had eight unwitnessed falls between September 2017 and April 2018, and again, no significant or meaningful updates to the care plan were made.

07/13/2018 Failure to ensure drugs and biologicals used in the facility are labeled in accordance with currently accepted professional principles; and all drugs and biologicals must be stored in locked compartments, separately locked, compartments for controlled drugs. Multiple insulin injection pens were observed with no expiration dates written on them. Multiple packets of expired medicine were found on medicine carts. The director of nursing stated that nurses are supposed to go over the carts on a weekly basis, removing expired and no longer needed medications.

07/21/2018 Failure to make sure that the nursing home area is free from accident hazards and risks and provides supervision to prevent avoidable accidents. Extremely hot and dangerous steam tables for keeping food warm were observed to be unsupervised, unprotected, and within reach of cognitively impaired residents. Along with this, a resident with poor safety awareness was being assisted to the bathroom and her wheeled walker got away from her, leaving her with her arms outstretched and leaning awkwardly. She was not given prompts for safe use.