Attorney for Negligence & Abuse at Alden Estates of Orland Park

• Facility name: Alden Estates of Orland Park
• Facility address: 16450 South 97Th Ave, Orland Park, IL 60462
• Facility phone: (708) 403-6500

Alden Estates of Orland Park is a 200 bed for-profit rehabilitative care and short term health care facility. Alden’s advertising paints a picture of upscale care, something beyond the standard nursing home. Their website boasts a holistic approach to quality care, using innovative therapies designed to send patients home as quickly and safely as possible.

Luxurious accommodations and indulgent amenities are intended to make Alden a wonderful an enjoyable place to call home while recuperating from surgery or a hospital stay. While many Alden facilities are highly rated by Medicare, and have very few care violations on record, there are always exceptions. Alden Estates of Orland Park is one of them. Alden Estates of Orland Park has had a total of 27 complaints resulting in a citation in the past three years. Here’s a sampling of what’s really going on:

04/10/2018 Failure to provide appropriate pressure ulcer care and prevent new ulcers from developing. The facility failed to obtain new treatment orders for a deteriorating skin condition for 4 days. This failure resulted in a resident being identified with a large, unstageable pressure ulcer measuring 8cm by 8cm.

Along with this, the resident also had moisture related skin damage to the perianal area. This resident was indicated as a high risk for developing ulcers. Records revealed that upon a skin assessment during bathing, a CNA had noted a new skin abnormality, but did not report to a nurse until 4 days later. When the nurse did assess, it was then approximately 3 inches square and covered with 100% necrotic tissue.

06/05/2018 Failure to provide appropriate care for residents who are continent or incontinent of bowel/bladder, appropriate catheter care, and appropriate care to prevent urinary tract infections. Improper catheter procedures led to a resident having a urinary tract infection. The resident was observed by the inspector with a full urine collection bag with cloudy, amber urine and a pink tinged substance observed throughout the tubing.

When the LPN was questioned about the frequency of changing urine collection bags, the response was “I’m not sure exactly, I really don’t remember.” When the surveyor inquired about this particular resident’s bag, the LPN unclipped the bag, raised it to about chest height and emptied the bag, while the contents of the tubing drained back into the resident’s body. The LPN noted there were sediments present. The final assessment was to start a course of Bactrim for a urinary tract infection. (Proper catheter care procedures indicate placing the drainage bag below the resident’s bladder to facilitate proper drainage.)

06/05/2018 Failure to develop and implement a complete care plan that meets all the resident’s needs, with timetables and actions that can be measured. A resident had care notes that included several instances of agitation, combativeness, and physical aggression. The surveyor asked the facilities’ assistant administrator if medical diagnoses, behaviors, and psychoactive medications should be addressed in the individuals care plan, to which they responded “yes, ma’am.”

The surveyor then inquired if anxiety, dementia, behaviors and/or psychoactive drugs were in fact included on this individuals care plan – it was not. Due to this oversight, this individual was not receiving the full level of care they should have, affecting his own quality of life as well as the staff attempting to care for him.

11/09/2017 Failure to reasonably accommodate the needs and preferences of each resident. Multiple residents reported that it takes an extremely long time for call lights to be answered. They stated that many times the staff responds that they will be right there and never come back. This interferes with help using the bathroom, getting up to eat, position changes, and incontinence care.