2011 budget graphHeather Steans
State Senator
Springfield Update
 

 

May 10, 2010

Dear Neighbor, 

For years our community has suffered from too many nursing homes that have put profit ahead of the needs of their residents.  As the "Compromised Care" series in the Chicago Tribune exposed, there is "chronic violence inside a subset of facilities that house younger psychiatric patients and convicted felons alongside geriatric residents."  On Friday the Illinois Senate sent a bill to the Governor's desk that will overhaul nursing home regulations to ensure greater safety and quality of care in nursing homes and provide more opportunities for patients to receive care in community and home based settings.  I am honored to have worked with a tremendous group of advocates to help pass this legislation.  You can read the Tribune article about the bill here and read the bill itself here.

The Governor's Nursing Home Safety Task Force, led by Michael Gelder in the Governor's Office, developed a series of recommendations to improve the safety and care of nursing home residents.   These recommendations formed the starting point for negotiations between industry representatives and advocates for the elderly, nursing home residents and mentally ill.  Hundreds of hours of tense negotiations led to this bill which includes the following changes:

  • Expands the pre-admission screening process and adds a re-screening component for nursing home residents with serious mental illness to ensure individuals are provided with community options;
  • Tightens criminal background checks and screenings of patients with serious mental illness;
  • Requires facilities to obtain a new psychiatric rehabilitation certificate before serving residents with serious mental illness and a new behavioral management unit certificate before serving residents who pose a risk to others;
  • Raises required staffing ratio to 3.8 hours of skilled care per resident per day (from 2.5 hours) and 2.5 hours of intermediate care (from 1.7) over 4 years;
  • Strengthens penalties and fines to nursing homes for failing to meet standards and expands the Department of Public's Health authority to suspend, revoke or refuse to renew a facility's license;
  • Doubles license fees and  mandates surveyor ratios to ensure the Department of Public Health has sufficient resources for needed oversight; and
  • Creates a workgroup of advocates, providers, state agencies and the Governor's office to submit a plan for a new provider assessment by November 1, 2010.

These changes are long overdue in Illinois.  The sweeping reforms would not have been accomplished without vigilant advocacy from AARP, Illinois Citizens for Better Care, SEIU, Next Steps, and many other organizations, as well as the ongoing focus from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reporter.  This victory demonstrates that Springfield can (at least on occasion!) produce positive results that meaningfully impact people.  Going forward we will need to remain vigilant to ensure the development of a fair provider assessment and that, once signed, the bill is implemented appropriately.  Resources need to be provided to community and home based alternatives as well to ensure individuals have meaningful options.

Over the next few days I will send additional emails with updates on the budget debacle and other legislative results from the session.  As always, please contact me at 773-769-1717 or at [email protected] if you have any questions or thoughts to share.

Best regards,

Heather Steans