By Pam G. Dempsey/Investigative Journalism Education Consortium -- More than 20 million college students across the nation will start school this month, just weeks…
An elderly man with Alzheimer's disease leaves a local nursing home without staff noticing and is found wandering into traffic on Mattis Avenue in Champaign. A patient in an Urbana nursing home is left unattended on a bed pan for hours until the bed pan creates a deep pressure sore in its shape.
Darrell Hoemann
In July 2010, Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law two bills that introduced broad reforms for the state’s nursing homes. The laws strengthened the screening process to keep residents with histories of violent crimes separate from vulnerable, elderly residents; instituted tougher quality and staffing requirements; upped fines for violations; increased the number of state inspectors by nearly 50 percent; and added new requirements for quicker reporting of fraud, neglect and abuse, among other changes.