JACKSONVILLE - A nurse's aide says she feels exonerated after state health officials dropped a complaint that accused her of abusing residents of Golden Moments Senior Care Center.
Jessie Ross, 23, says she will continue her quest to become a nurse, although she is leery of returning to work in the long-term-care industry.
"It kind of scares me to go back," she said this week. "One person could get mad at you, and there goes everything you worked for."
Ross, a Jacksonville resident who is married and has three children, was fired from Golden Moments in connection with allegations that she verbally abused, harassed residents and treated them roughly in spring 2009.
"None of it was true," Ross said.
The allegations, outlined in an Illinois Department of Public Health report, resulted in $20,000 in fines being issued against the 113-bed nursing home. The federal government also fined Golden Moments $16,400.
The for-profit nursing home agreed to pay $6,500 to settle the state fine. Federal officials are attempting to collect the federal fine.
A Public Health complaint Aug. 17 included "preliminary findings" that Ross had slapped three different residents; threatened to slit one resident's throat, held the resident's hands against his chest and kicked him; hid a resident's nail polish; and spoke to residents in "a disparaging manner."
If successful, the complaint would have resulted in Ross being declared an abuser in the Illinois Health Care Worker Registry. She would have been banned from working in the long-term-care industry in Illinois.
Ross fought the complaint, and the state dropped the matter before a public hearing could be held. Public Health's final order simply said its initial findings were "not affirmed."
The original Public Health report cited Golden Moments residents and other nurse's aides as sources of information. Public Health general counsel Jason Boltz said the agency's decision to drop the complaint was based on the fact that the agency lacked witnesses"in the case.
Jamie Freschi, a regional longterm-care ombudsman at the Springfield-based I-CARE agency, said she's frustrated that the complaint was dropped.
"The facility got fined, so I'm wondering why the individual accused of the behaviors wasn't punished in some way," Freschi said. "That does not make sense to me."
The allegations were investigated by police, but no criminal charges were filed.
Ross said the allegations apparently were made up by Golden Moments residents, many of whom have Alzheimer's disease and other mental disorders.
"I never touched them. I never harassed them," she said. "I really like the elderly."
Ross said that after being fired by Golden Moments, she went to work as a nurse's aide for another nursing home but was fired from that job after the state issued its complaint. She believes that publicity about her time at Golden Moments prevented her from getting other jobs as an aide.
Ross, who now works part-time as server at a restaurant, said she and her husband are taking classes at Lincoln Land Community College.
With the complaint behind her, Ross plans to begin nursing classes at LLCC in August.
"I'm excited," she said. "I can go back and do what I love. I like helping people."
Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.
Legislators propose nursing home reforms
CHICAGO (AP) - Beefing up staffing in Illinois nursing homes and raising fines on facilities that endanger residents are key features of reform legislation announced Tuesday by two Chicago lawmakers, union leaders and advocates for the elderly.
The nursing home industry quickly signaled displeasure with the bill, saying the proposal "goes way beyond" issues addressed by Gov. Pat Quinn's nursing home safety task force. But one of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, said her coalition is ready for a fight.
"We are here to say quite boldly and courageously that we're willing to take on the nursing home industry," Collins said at a news conference in Springfield.
The proposal, SB 685, targets violence in Illinois nursing homes stemming from the state's reliance on the facilities to house younger adults with serious mental illness. Assaults, rapes and murders reported in a series of news articles sparked the formation of the governor's task force.
The nursing home industry has been taking part in talks in Springfield with members of the task force working toward legislation, said Terry Sullivan of the Health Care Council of Illinois, the state's largest nursing home trade group.
Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, is sponsoring the legislation with Collins. It's backed by groups such as AARP, unions representing health care workers, the Supportive Housing Providers Association and Illinois Citizens for Better Care.
The proposal calls for a database of nursing home assaults that would be kept by the Illinois Department of Public Health and a new tax on nursing homes to increase funding for the state long-term care ombudsman program, which sends trained advocates into nursing homes to help residents.
