Complaints about long-term care in Illinois are usually dismissed. One woman’s case sheds light on how the system works
CHICAGO — One morning in March 2021, at a nursing home in Evanston, resident Velta Saint registered an alarmingly low 44% oxygen level in her blood. Normal levels range from 95% to 100%, and one study recommends hospitalization for any patient with a reading below 90%.
Medical workers tried to improve Saint’s respiration, then sent her to a hospital — which sent her back to the nursing home, before she was returned to the hospital, where she died. Saint’s ordeal came after her daughter, a registered nurse, said the home had been slow, in her opinion, to diagnose her condition and failed to treat it aggressively. The daughter, Marlene Bryan, filed a complaint over her mother’s treatment with the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“What gets me is, I told them,” Bryan said. “There were so many things that are so wrong. If somebody had said, ‘This is not right,’ my mom would still be alive today.”
But a state inspector found the complaint unsubstantiated, meaning he found insufficient evidence to give it credence. As a result, state regulators took no action against the nursing home — a common occurrence with complaints about long-term care.
In 2021, state inspectors found about 64% — nearly 2 out of 3 — of overall complaints and abuse or neglect complaints unsubstantiated. In 2020, 66% of overall complaints were unsubstantiated, and 90% of neglect allegations.
The issue isn’t new nationally. As far back as 2009, the U.S. Government
