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Illinois Nursing Home Closed For Resident Abuse

Tue, 04/04/2000 - 11:00pm — Karen Stevenson
Description: 

A 52-bed nursing home in Lexington Illinois was closed by the state Department of Health in an emergency action, and the facility's 26 residents have been moved to other homes. The facility had been admitting homeless young people with substance abuse problems from the Chicago area to fill the empty beds, and these younger residents were terrorizing the other residents and facility staff. The drug patients told police they had agreed to go to the home in the quiet town about 100 miles southwest of Chicago after being promised substance abuse treatment, use of a swimming pool and horseback riding, but they found no pool, no drug treatment program, and a horse across the street that hadn't been ridden in years. The Department of Health had received no satisfactory response from the Chicago-area owners, after levying over $100,000 in fines since February.

A 52-bed nursing home in Lexington Illinois was closed by the state Department of Health in an emergency action, and the facility's 26 residents have been moved to other homes. The facility had been admitting homeless young people with substance abuse problems from the Chicago area to fill the empty beds, and these younger residents were terrorizing the other residents and facility staff. The drug patients told police they had agreed to go to the home in the quiet town about 100 miles southwest of Chicago after being promised substance abuse treatment, use of a swimming pool and horseback riding, but they found no pool, no drug treatment program, and a horse across the street that hadn't been ridden in years. The Department of Health had received no satisfactory response from the Chicago-area owners, after levying over $100,000 in fines since February.