McHenry County Blog

And, according to this email today from Defend the Vote‘s Sharon Meroni, the Democratic Party election officials won’t even tell who the judges will be who take votes from nursing home residents.

The voting will be Friday and she seeks Republicans to volunteer to ensure chicanery does not occur.

Editor Note: Aaron Del Mar, Cook County Republican Chairman, is authorizing this investigation of the nursing home vote in Cook County.

Subject: RE: UNLAWFUL? NURSING HOME – Legal ALERT

This is the problem…

Noah Praetz has stated he cannot send me ANY lists of nursing home judges because he sent me wrong data before and I reacted by asking the question with all of you cc’d. This is like punishing the recipient of his error.

Time is short. Friday is voting day for the nursing homes. In March 75% of the nursing home residents’ rights were violated. Yet not one of you, except Noah, responds?

How can this be?

Who is going to watch these voters?

Where is the Illinois State Board of Elections?

For the FIRST time ever, Chicago managed to get voting Republicans into the appropriate nursing home election judge positions. (info via Commissioner Richard Cowen).

This compared to Cook County which is COMPLETELY stonewalling all of our access… And refuses to send us the names of the election judges for the Nursing Homes?

Only they know who the mysterious judges are. Judges, that Cook County has already had trainings for. Did they sign in to train anonymously?

In Cook County, our most vulnerable voters vote on Friday. Over 3000.

Our election security is partisan based.

The law lays out how the nursing home patient vote is to be conducted.

Cook County is in violation of these laws.

Who is protecting the nursing home resident’s vote? Who has the jurisdiction? Please, I need to know, are we alone in this battle to protect the most vulnerable voters in Cook County?

Regards,

Sharon Meroni 
312-242-1818

A press release from State Senator Pam Althoff:

IL Senate passes “Paul’s Law” to combat group home abuse

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Illinois Senate on Wednesday approved tough new legislation aimed at combating the abuse of the developmentally disabled, says State Sen. Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry), the sponsor of the measure.

Pam Althoff

House Bill 653, “Paul’s Law,” is named for 42 year-old Paul McCann – a resident of a downstate group home who was brutally murdered by an employee at the facility. It passed the Senate unanimously and now heads to the Governor for his signature.

“It’s a shame this law was even necessary,” Althoff said.

“When we entrust our loved ones to a care facility – whether a nursing home or a group home – we expect them to receive the best quality of care possible.

“Not only did that not happen in this case, but Paul was viciously killed by the very caregiver who was supposed to be looking after him. My hope is this legislation will eliminate this type of sickening crime from ever happening again.”

Paul’s Law makes several changes to state law aimed at toughening oversight of group homes.

Among its provisions –

• placing independent observers in facilities where residents are believed to be at risk,
• a state review of facilities’ funding and licenses which have seen claims of neglect and abuse, and
• requiring regular background checks of group home employees.

If in the course of a review an employee is found to have been involved of cases of abuse or neglect, that employment must be terminated.

The group home where Paul was killed – Charleston’s Graywood facility – has been the subject of more than 40 investigations since 2008, including the deaths of two residents.

Two of Graywood’s former caregivers are currently facing first-degree murder charges for Paul’s death.

Paul’s Law came about as the result of the McCann family, which has worked hard over the past year to change state law and ensure the horrible crime that happened to Paul would never happen to others.

The measure was sponsored in the Illinois House by Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago).

While the legislation is too late to save Paul, Sen. Althoff says his death will not be in vain.

“By passing this law, we will not only save lives, but the lives of some of our most vulnerable citizens,” Althoff said. “This is Paul’s legacy to all of us, and for that we are eternally grateful.”

That’s what the following press release from the Crystal Lake Police Department says, “contact with the resident of an insulting nature.”

That, plus “gaining unauthorized possession of her medication for his own personal use,” got Harvard’s 25-year old Jeremiah Healls arrested for aggravated battery.

Here’ is the police department’s press release:

On Saturday, May 15th, 2010, officers of the Crystal Lake Police Department responded to the Fair Oaks Health Care Center, located at 471 W. Terra Cotta Avenue regarding an incident that involved a resident there (age 92).

Jeremiah Healless

It was determined that an employee; Jeremiah J. Healless, (25) of 306 N. Eastman Street, Harvard, IL, a Certified Nurse’s Assistant, had made contact with the resident of an insulting nature, and gained unauthorized possession of her medication for his own personal use.

Healless was arrested and charged with one count of Aggravated Battery, (a class 3 Felony, due to the age of the victim) and was transferred to the McHenry County Jail.

Crystal Lake Police continue to investigate this matter, and further charges may be pending.

The McHenry County Board is due to discuss how much control it shall give to an quasi-independent board that will run the county nursing home, named Valley Hi.

In August I offered two “quality of care” ideas that I got from State Rep. Webber Borchers.

County Board member John Hammerand made some patient protection suggestions that I printed. I don’t see any that made it into the draft being considered.

I decided to read the governing document that county board members are being asked to approve to discover if there will be adequate complaint and appeal mechanisms.

When I got about 55% through, I found something that I must say strikes me as close to unbelievable.

The county board is being asked to set up what is pretty much a self-perpetuating governing entity.

Valley Hi, the McHenry County Nursing Home, is seen from the northwest on a sunny winter day.

If someone leaves the board because of the two-term limitation or resigns, where will the pool of replacements come from?

The Nominating Committee shall consist of at least three (3) persons appointed by the Chairperson of the Operating Board. This Committee shall have the responsibility of maintaining a roster of qualified persons for recommendation to the McHenry County Board to serve as Directors. In the absence of a Nominating Committee, the Operating Board shall have the responsibility of maintaining a roster of qualified persons for recommendation to the McHenry County Board to serve as Directors. (Section Two under “Committees.”)

When I read that, I concluded that no one who wanted to rock the boat of the majority need apply.  (Organizational Theory was my favorite course during my Public Administration grad school at the University of Michigan.)

Their name would obviously not make it to the county board for possible appointment.

Well, I’ve been through the entire piece and find no where an avenue whereby a patient or concerned relative or friend could complain to a McHenry County Board member and have it mean anything.

Here’s the mission statement on the McHenry County web site for McHenry County’s nursing home:

Mission Statement

Valley Hi Nursing Home, Woodstock, IL, is operated for the benefit of the aged population of McHenry County who require public assistance.

Valley Hi Nursing Home strives to deliver resident care, clinical, psychological, and spiritual in an environment that promotes dignity and self-respect as envisioned by the McHenry County Board and its inception.

In the tradition of Valley Hi Nursing home, our mission is to continue to provide nursing home services with the highest standards set by policy and ordinance of McHenry County and to conform with all State and Federal regulations

Setting aside that

• its predecessor, the Poor Farm, was used to patch up gangland victims
• the pigs never had hams because the members of the Poor Farm Committee took them home in their trunks
• a member, maybe the chairman of the nursing home’s county board committee tried to shake down the Kishwaukee Valley Road farmer who dug a well

let’s talk about the planned relationship between the company that is going to manage Valley Hi and those most interested in the care it provides, that is, its patients, their family and friends.

McHenry County Board member John Hammerand (R-Wonder Lake) proposed the following amendment to the operating agreement between the county board and the management company:

Valley Hi Complaint and Appeal Procedures

“Patient, Relative, Guardian and Friend Complaints”

“The Authority shall post on the front door and prominently in each wing of the Valley Hi building notices of how anyone wishing to complain of service or conditions may do so.

“The notice shall include reference to a web site where complaint forms may be found and filed. In addition, the notice shall inform people where paper copies of complaint forms may be found at Valley Hi and the Government Center.

“Names of those making complaints shall not be required unless an appeal of corrective action taken, if any, is taken by the Operating Authority and /or staff is made to the McHenry County Board’s Valley Hi Committee.”

“Any patient, relative, guardian or friend may appeal the correction taken, if any, by the Operating Authority and/or staff to the Valley Hi Committee of the McHenry County Board.

“The committee, consisting of three members, shall be appointed in the same manner as all other committees of the McHenry County Board.

“The committee is empowered to hold hearings and conduct any investigations of service quality or conditions based on complaints made by patients, relatives, guardians or friends who are willing to make their identities public or on the committee’s own initiative.

“The Valley Hi staff and Operating Authority are instructed by this ordinance to provide any information and cooperation requested by the Valley Hi Committee.”

Sounds like it would provide something similar to the protection provided with a county board committee overseeing Valley Hi.

I have looked in vain for a complaint form on the county’s web site.

Here is the current complaint policy, provided to every resident/family upon admission.

In addition, as a matter of procedure and implementation, the Valley Hi care plan team addresses complaints and concerns as part of the routine quarterly meetings with residents and their families; part of the monthly Resident Council meeting is designed to address concerns/complaints; and, the Family meetings being conducted since last fall include opportunity for family members to address concerns.

When I was in the General Assembly, probably in the 1970′s, there was a very, very conservative state representative from Decatur named Webber Borchers. His other claim to fame was being the second Chief Illiniwek.

Besides being very, very conservative, I shall remember one way he spent his legislative allowance.

He hired a woman to check on nursing homes in his district.

She would go in a nursing home, introduce herself as Rep. Borchers’ Legislative Assistant and ask the administrator if she could look around.

Some told her, “I don’t have to let you in.”

The reply was, “You are correct, but, if you don’t I’ll tell me boss.”

I’ll bet she wasn’t refused more than once.

She had a 10 or 12-point check list that made so much sense. I wish I could find a copy, but here are some of the questions:

• Was the water within reach of each patient?
• Was there a smell of urine?

Common sense questions. Nothing technical. The same kind of things that you would pick up if you were considering putting a parent in a nursing facility.

Picking up on Webber’s idea, I introduced a bill that would have required a toll free complaint number, plus the number and address of the owner of the nursing home be put on the front door.

The type of nursing home with Webber Borchers’ proxy visitors locally has always been the county nursing home, called Valley Hi.

If county board members walked though the facility and smell urine, you better believe they had the power to do something about it.

If things got bad enough, they could probably get the county home administrator fired.

All of this is preface to writing about the ability of patients and their relatives and friends to make complaints that might mean something under the management agreement being proposed with an outside firm.