The Worst Nursing Homes in Illinois
You can discover the worst nursing homes in Illinois by visiting Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare, checking IDPH’s quarterly reports, and reviewing ratings and rankings from reputable advocacy organizations. Learning more about a Chicago nursing home’s ratings helps you steer clear of facilities with a history of abuse and neglect when choosing a nursing home for a loved one. If your loved one’s current nursing home has poor ratings or a history of poor care, you could move him or her to a different facility or be vigilant and address issues proactively.
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If you suspect your loved one has suffered abuse or neglect in an Illinois nursing home, call DePaolo & Zadeikis nursing home abuse attorneys at 312-263-7560 to discuss your rights and legal options.
How to Identify the Worst Nursing Homes in Illinois
Unfortunately, there have been many times over the years when nursing homes in Illinois have failed to meet the standards of high-quality care. Illinois was ranked 28th in Medicare’s list of best states for long-term care and the third worst nursing home state by Families for Better Care. These and other statistics show how important due diligence is when choosing a nursing home in Illinois for yourself or an elderly family member. You should know the nursing homes that pose the greatest risk to the health, safety, and quality of life of residents.
Learning nursing home ratings is a great starting point for identifying the worst nursing homes in Illinois. Several organizations conduct and publish nursing home ratings. Below are tools you can use to identify the facilities with a history of or ongoing neglect, abuse, and quality of care issues.
CMS Rating System
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rates nursing homes in Illinois and across the nation based on factors like health inspection reports, staffing levels, resident surveys, and overall quality of care. The agency uses a five-star rating system, with a five-star rating indicating excellent quality, a one-star rating representing quality that’s much below average, and a three-star rating representing an average rating.
Some Illinois nursing homes with low CMS ratings have received abuse citations. These facilities have a red icon with a white hand inside next to their names. Such a nursing home can be held liable for abuse committed by its staff.
You can view the quality ratings of nursing homes in Illinois and compare different facilities simultaneously using Medicare website’s Nursing Home Compare tool.
IDPH Quarterly Reports
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is one of the agencies that licenses, inspects, and regulates nursing homes in Illinois. The agency is tasked with ensuring nursing homes in Illinois comply with federal and state regulations. It conducts inspections at least once every six to fifteen months. Nursing homes can also be inspected due to complaints, such as when an employee’s or family member’s complaints may warrant investigations into nursing home abuse involving sexual assault.
The department publishes quarterly reports listing nursing homes cited for abuse, neglect, and safety violations. Reviewing these reports can provide insight into the worst nursing homes in Illinois.
NHAA Illinois Watchlist
Nursing Home Abuse Advocate maintains a watchlist of nursing homes in Illinois and across the United States that have a history of neglect, abuse, or unsafe practices. Facilities are added to the watchlist if they’ve been found to cause actual harm to residents, have a history of poor care quality, unsafe staffing levels, or repeatedly received the worst ratings.
ProPublica Illinois Nursing Home Database
You can get data on serious deficiencies, total fines paid, and nurse turnover in Illinois facilities on the ProPublica Illinois Nursing Home Database. As of February 2025, 266 Illinois nursing homes had been found to have serious deficiencies.
The NursingHomeDatabase.com Worst Nursing Homes Lists
The NursingHomeDatabase.com compiles rankings of the top worst nursing homes in Illinois based on data from government reports, independent evaluations, and other reputable sources. City-specific rankings, such as Chicago nursing home rankings, are also available. The rankings show a facility’s overall star rating, with a red alert icon being added to nursing homes that CMS has flagged for abuse.
U.S. News Nursing Home Ratings
U.S. News rates nursing homes using data from publicly available data sources like CMS and the Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC). You can search for nursing homes by name, state, or city.
Signs of Abuse and Neglect in Illinois Nursing Homes
If an aging family member is in a low-rated nursing home, you can consider transferring them to a better environment. If moving your loved one isn’t possible, you’ll need to constantly watch out for signs of abuse and neglect during your loved one’s stay in that facility.
Sometimes, even the best-rated nursing homes can be negligent or abusive. One bad employee or changes in ownership are some factors that could result in a resident being abused and neglected in a highly rated nursing home. As a result, it’s important for families to know the warning signs of abuse and neglect.
Spotting the warning signs early can help prevent further harm. Here are the common signs that nursing home abuse lawyers see in the cases they handle:
Unexplained Physical Injuries
Physical abuse usually leaves behind visual evidence. An elderly resident is likely to be a victim of physical abuse or neglect if he or she has noticeable injuries like scratches, cuts, bruises, burns, broken bones, and restraint marks without a logical explanation. Pelvic injuries, bruises on breasts or genitals, stained, bloody, or torn undergarments, and unexplained sexually transmitted diseases are indicators of sexual abuse.
Untreated bedsores are clear signs of nursing home neglect in Illinois. These sores occur when a resident isn’t periodically repositioned.
Behavioral Changes
Changes in a nursing home resident’s emotional state or behavior are a common sign of abuse. These changes may include social withdrawal, fear, anxiety, depression, agitation, sleeping problems, and sudden fear, discomfort, or hesitation to talk when particular staff members are around.
Nursing home staff may dismiss your concerns or questions about your loved one’s injuries or behavioral changes. Some may even prevent communication or visits. These are red flags of nursing home abuse.
Unsanitary Conditions
Unsanitary living conditions often indicate nursing home neglect. These are common in understaffed nursing homes. Victims may have dirty clothes, dirty nails, dry skin, bad smells, and an unkempt appearance. The facilities may have unsanitary bathrooms, unclean bedding and rooms, cluttered hallways, poor ventilation, and strong odors. Lack of sanitary conditions increases the risk of nursing home residents contracting infectious diseases. Frequent infections, sudden health decline, worsening illnesses, and emergency hospitalizations should, therefore, raise a red flag.
Suspicious Financial Activity
Nursing home staff members can take advantage of a resident’s dependence on them or cognitive impairment to misuse the resident’s assets for their own financial gain. It’s crucial to keep an eye on your loved one’s possessions and finances. Be on the lookout for signs of financial abuse like:
- Unexplained withdrawals from your loved one’s bank accounts
- Revised estate planning documents
- Changes in your loved one’s financial situation
- Checks written to unknown individuals
- Addition of authorized users to the resident’s debit or credit cards
- Missing valuable personal items
Taking Action Against Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect in Chicago
Illinois laws allow nursing home residents and their loved ones to hold the facilities accountable for abuse or neglect. If your loved one suffered harm due to abuse or neglect, talk to a nursing home abuse lawyer in Illinois. An experienced Chicago lawyer will guide you through the Illinois legal process and help you build a strong case against the liable parties.
Taking action quickly after recognizing the warning signs of nursing home abuse or neglect in Illinois is crucial. You have limited time to initiate legal action against the nursing home. In most cases, the nursing home abuse statute of limitations is two years from when the incident occurred. There may be exceptions to the statute of limitations in some cases. For example, in a case where the abuse or harm isn’t immediately discoverable, you may have two years from when you should’ve reasonably discovered the act of abuse or injuries suffered to file a claim.
Timely legal action against the facility that harmed you or an elderly family member helps you and your family get justice for abuse victims and compensation for the losses and suffering endured. Additionally, it sheds light on major systemic failures in nursing homes and the urgent need to address the underlying problems, protecting families from nursing home abuse and neglect in the future. If legal action isn’t taken promptly, nursing homes aren’t held accountable. Victims are left without legal recourse, and abuse, neglect, and poor care continue unimpeded.If your loved one was injured or killed due to abuse or neglect in an Illinois nursing home, DePaolo & Zadeikis can help. With over 70 years of combined experience, our Chicago nursing home abuse lawyers have the legal expertise to handle your case successfully. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.
