Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Long Term Care topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County ombudsman reports staffing gains and wins for long-term-care residents
Summary
The center for long-term care ombudsman reported improved staffing, several successful resident advocacy outcomes and assistance in obtaining medical records and therapies for residents; two local facilities are closing and staff are assisting resident relocations.
The Center for Long-Term Care Ombudsman told the Peoria County Board it is no longer actively recruiting for several positions and has two new full-time ombudsmen who are fully trained. The ombudsman reported increases across benchmark measures and shared several case examples of resident advocacy.
Ombudsman staff described three recent successes: assisting two skilled-nursing residents to transfer to assisted living after coordination with facility social workers and with resident permission; advocating to secure delayed physical and occupational therapy for a resident after a six-week delay; and successfully obtaining a ballot and preserving voting rights for a resident the facility had declined to allow to vote. In another case the ombudsman intervened to secure copies of a resident’s medical records after a facility initially attempted to charge a $25 per-page fee; after the ombudsman threatened a complaint to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the facility electronically provided several hundred pages of records.
The ombudsman also said two large long-term-care facilities in Peoria County are closing and that staff are assisting residents to find safe placements during the closures.
No formal action was required of the county board during the report.
