home, nursing, care, facilities, rauner, residents, states, illinois, profit, lawsuits
For those living in Illinois, Bruce Rauner is already a household name as the Republican nominee for governor of Illinois. Rauner is an incredibly successful businessman, and is running his campaign under the promise that he would run our (admittedly bankrupt) state more like a business. Nursing home negligence lawyers at Pintas & Mullins see one glaring problem with that promise: the serious violations coming out of a chain of nursing homes Rauner previously owned.
American Habilitation Services operates long-term care facilities for the elderly and disabled in Illinois and a handful of other states, including Texas, Arizona and Florida. Unfortunately, the chain has recently had to defend itself against several lawsuits and federal inspections after multiple residents passed away and hundreds of others were found living in deplorable conditions. American Habilitation Services (AHS) is one of Rauner’s former companies, however, his spokespeople stated that he is not involved in the chain’s day-to-day management.
Most of the nursing homes in the United States are run by for-profit corporations like AHS, which have only one goal in mind: to profit as much as possible. Too often, those profits come at the expense of patients, who are our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. One would hope that a nursing home chain formerly owned by a political hopeful would demonstrate outstanding ethics or at least treat patients with respect; unfortunately, this is not the case.
It is no surprise that families of those elderly and disabled victims are taking legal action against AHS. Among their claims are several cases of wrongful death, one in an 11-year-old resident who was attacked and killed by an older resident.
Other lawsuits allege instances of sexual assault, dangerous transfers, and severe negligence.
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One lawsuit stemming from the 2001 death of a woman at and AHS facility in Arizona resulted in a $45.5 million verdict against the company. The case, which was one of the largest verdicts in Arizona within the past decade, arose when a disabled woman drowned in a bathtub after being left alone by AHS employees.
Around the same time, AHS was defending itself in a lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general, after a woman at the Indian Wells House suffered numerous sexual assaults from an AHS worker. Two years later, the Texas attorney general again brought a suit against AHS, claiming the company improperly transferred a resident. The resident was found unconscious in the new home, without a heart rate. Employees of her new home were apparently unaware of her congestive heart failure diagnosis, and she later died in the ER.
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In yet another example of gross negligence, in 2004 the Florida inspector general cited AHS for several violations, including overbilling the state for $7,000, several complaints regarding lack of food, and failing to report at least one sexual assault. Rauner left AHS’s parent company in 2012, when he launched his campaign for Illinois governor.
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Sadly, as the population ages, long-term care facilities like AHS will only become more crowded, making the residents more susceptible to harm and mistreatment. As stated, nursing home chains that run for-profit often leave their facilities without the resources necessary to properly care for and monitor all their patients. Similarly, to increase profits, many facilities are chronically understaffed, which leaves the employees who do work there incredibly overworked, stressed, and unable to fulfill their job duties.
Nursing home residents have considerable medical needs – some need constant supervision and care, which, if not received, can lead to significant physical deterioration and ultimately death. Many states have seen a trend in nursing home litigation and multi-million dollar verdicts. More often than not, these lawsuits are directly linked to issues of understaffing, lack of resources, and budget issues.
There is now widespread need to reform the long-term care system, and for the immediate victims of nursing home abuse and neglect, the best way to do this is through litigation. Those who suffer most directly from mistreatment need to take immediate action to not only right the wrong that’s been done to them, but prevent future abuses on fellow residents as well.
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