Report: 5 More Deaths Linked to Care at Chicago Nursing Facility

A federally backed advocacy group has identified five additional deaths at a Chicago nursing facility that it says involved poor care. The group also found that the home, which cares for disabled children and young adults, destroyed evidence of errors involving medication, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Illnesses at Alden Village North were treated improperly, doctors didn't return pages, test results were ignored, and internal probes into deaths were incomplete, watchdog group Equip for Equality found, according to the newspaper.

"What we're seeing here is a culture within a nursing home that tolerated lackadaisical, substandard care for years," Deborah Kennedy, the group's abuse investigation director, told the paper.

In October, a Tribune investigation into the home revealed a "pattern of death and neglect." The paper said the deaths of eight residents since 2008 resulted in state citations.

Equip for Equality said about 20 Alden patients have died since 2008. Five deaths that were not previously reported by the Tribune involved "particularly egregious" care, Kennedy said, that likely contributed to their decline.

The home said by email that the five residents "died because of medical conditions, not the care that was provided."

"We believe we provided appropriate, life-sustaining care to these residents and the Equip for Equality report does not tell the entire story," a spokesman wrote the paper.

Equip for Equality, which has broad powers from Congress to help protected the disabled, spent weeks inside Alden reviewing documents and medical records. It filed its final report with the state this month, and the paper obtained it through an open-records request.

The state has tried to close the home, but Alden remains open on appeal.