Nursing Home Director Fined

Ex-administrator loses license
Woman ran East Peoria nursing home during time of significant violations, deaths of 2 patients 2008


BY MICHAEL SMOTHERS
OF THE JOURNAL STAR

EAST PEORIA - The woman who directed a troubled East Peoria nursing home is serving a minimum one-year suspension of her administrator's license, while the home continues challenging the state's severe penalties against it.
Stacy Dikeman of Gilson did not contest the suspension of her nursing home administrator's license that began in November, an official with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation confirmed Friday.

Dikeman administered East Peoria Gardens Health Care Center from August 2006 until last April 15, when she left her job after inspection of the home by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

It found 23 nursing home code violations that, an IDPH spokeswoman said, "run the gamut" of health-care deficiencies, but which most notably included circumstances surrounding the April deaths of two home residents, one after a fall and another who choked on food.

Problems at the home mounted after it began accepting younger residents with histories of criminal behavior and mental illness and allowed them to mix with more traditional, long-term geriatric patients, the IDPH found.

Several patients, designated as wards of the state, were removed from the home in the wake of the findings.

In July, the IDPH levied some of the most severe penalties it can impose on the facility, including a $100,000 fine and the loss of five days worth of Medicaid reimbursements for all its patients.

Meyer Magence, a Skokie-based attorney for the home's Chicago-based owners, said Friday he continues to pursue an appeal of both the violation findings and the penalties. A hearing with the state health department is not yet set, he said.

The state professional regulation department also announced the following actions involving area state-licensed activities effective in November:

- Arlen Booth of Henry (unlicensed), ordered to cease and desist unlicensed practice of architecture.

- Rodney Earl Willey of Dunlap (dental license), reprimanded and fined $4,500 for failure to provide adequate dental care regarding placement of implants and failed to diagnose dental decay.

- Kevin McCarthy of Peoria (chiropractor license), restored to indefinite probation for minimum of five years and fined $1,000.

- Gary Rowley of Canton (chiropractor license), placed on probation for a minimum of five years and fined $500 for violating terms of his previous probation.

- Katie Soper of Utica, (licensed practical nurse), reprimanded for being convicted of a misdemeanor for animal cruelty.

- Benjamin Broadfield of Galesburg (certified euthanasia technician license), reprimanded and fined $500 for failure to disclose a criminal conviction.


SOURCE: pjstar.com