IL investigation: Nursing home worker waited to report alleged sexual assault of resident
A small, nonprofit nursing home in St. Clair County received the most serious citation available to regulators and a $200,000 fine after a former nurse was accused of sexually assaulting a resident during the pandemic.
Former New Athens Home for the Aged nurse Richard P. Kuklinski, 61, was charged Monday with aggravated criminal sexual assault of a victim who was 60 years old or older following a police investigation that started in late 2020. Kuklinski’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment this week.
The Illinois Department of Public Health also conducted an investigation at New Athens Home. It cited the nursing home early this year for putting residents’ safety in “immediate jeopardy” by failing to prevent abuse and because of one employee’s failure to report the allegation of abuse to the administrator until a week after it was alleged to have happened, according to the state.
New Athens Home Administrator Jeff Edmiaston described it as a tragic but isolated incident that the nursing home has learned from. He said that he started working as the facility’s administrator shortly before the allegation against the former employee and that he took action as a result of it.
“We have been very detailed in our review of the situation, and we have taken multiple steps to prevent it from happening again,” Edmiaston said in an interview. Among the changes was updating employee training on reporting abuse.
The state’s investigation found that a certified nursing assistant who said he witnessed Kuklinski perform oral sex on a resident during a night shift on Dec. 16 did not inform his boss about it until Dec. 22, which is when the facility’s leaders called police.
The accused nurse finished the night shift and quit the next day, telling his boss he was leaving “because of the schedule,” Illinois’ report on its investigation states. Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said “administrative findings of abuse” will show up on a background check for workers seeking health care jobs.
The nursing home resident had a history of traumatic brain injury and anxiety, according to the state’s investigation, which included a review of his medical records.
His records also stated that he was at risk for abuse and neglect due to cognitive impairment, physical limitations, difficulty with communication and how much he depended on the staff for his care.
“I didn’t want him to do it but there was not much I could do about it being in this place and all,” the resident told a state inspector, according to the report.
The nursing home resident is not named in the state’s report, and it is the Belleville News-Democrat’s policy to not identify people who have been sexually assaulted without their consent.
The state investigation resulted in a $202,510 fine for New Athens Home from the agencies that regulate the industry:
$177,510 from the federal agency, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
$25,000 from the state agency, the Illinois Department of Public Health
The CNA who said he witnessed the sexual assault at the nursing home told a state inspector that he “was not trained for how to respond to something like this.”
“I was in shock,” the CNA told a state inspector. “I could not believe what I was seeing. I just left and did not tell anyone that day. I could not concentrate and kept seeing it over and over again in my head.”
Illinois downgraded the severity of New Athens Home’s citation in early 2021 because the nursing home made the following changes:
Worked to determine if the resident was coping and if he needed counseling
Revised its abuse policy
Updated staff training on all forms of abuse and how to report it
Started randomly evaluating employees while they worked with residents
Edmiaston said this week that the nursing home also installed security cameras in its common areas.
Like nursing homes across the state, New Athens Home was largely locked down in 2020 to visitors, including a resident’s family, in an effort to prevent the coronavirus from spreading inside the facilities.
