In the latest development to a high-profile lawsuit, state health inspectors say they’ve found no major violations at a Cicero nursing home where most residents now have COVID-19.
But the home, City View Multi-Care Center, will remain under a Cook County judicial order that allows surprise visits by local officials who’ve alleged widespread rule-breaking at a facility that houses 285 people.
In a Friday hearing held by videoconferencing, attorneys said 167 residents had tested positive along with 32 staffers, with another 30 residents’ tests inconclusive. Nine residents and a worker have died.
Circuit Judge Alison Conlon said that while encouraged by findings in the state’s inspection, she remained concerned about the extent of the virus spread there, as well as prior, repeated evidence the facility broke rules meant to contain the spread.
“These numbers are extremely alarming to people, to the residents, to the heroes who are going to work every day (in the facility) … to people who are also worried about them,” Conlon said.
The order extends a weeklong case that began when Cicero town officials took the unusual step of filing a lawsuit against not just the nursing home, but also the administration of Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Cicero alleged the home broke rules to limit the virus spread and state regulators did little to fix the problems.
The home’s lawyers denied the home had broken rules. The state Department of Public Health, which regulates nursing homes, told the judge it for weeks had chosen to not inspect and, instead, do daily phone check-ins to provide guidance on following directives.
During a Tuesday hearing, Conlon prodded state public health officials to agree to conduct an in-person inspection. The next day, the state sent in 10 inspectors who spent much of the morning reviewing infection control practices in the nine-story building. The health department’s lawyer, Katherine Snitzer, said they found only minor concerns.
“Overall, they found City View was in compliance with all the recommendations,” Snitzer told the judge.
City View’s lawyer, Jason Lundy, said the report confirmed what the facility’s leaders had been saying all along: They’d been doing all they could to follow the rules.
“We have never minimized the dangers and challenges of COVID, but City View is not doing anything different or less or worse than other nursing homes are doing to combat this. … Unfortunately, the numbers (of cases) are big and scary because we’re in a big and scary pandemic,” Lundy told the judge.
Cicero officials didn’t dispute state inspectors’ findings, but they questioned how much the home could be trusted to continue to follow the rules, considering Cicero cited it for repeatedly breaking them in the month before the inspection.
“To put it bluntly, City View was well aware that IDPH was going to go out and inspect,” said Cicero lawyer Cynthia Grandfield. “So while I’m happy they’re compliant, I’m not surprised they’re compliant.”
With the state unwilling to commit to doing more inspections, the town pushed the judge to let it conduct its own. The judge agreed to order up to two unannounced “visits” by the town public health director, or someone she picked to go, over the next 28 days.
If any problems are found, the town must first contact City View to try to work it out and, if that doesn’t work, Cicero can ask state inspectors to return, although the state isn’t required to do so. The lawyers are set to report back to the judge June 5.