Nursing Home Horror
Morton Grover operator one of state's worst
By STEVE RHODES
Updated 11:00 AM CST, Tue, Jun 2, 2009
A Morton Grove nursing home operator is one of the state's largest, but also one of the worst, a Chicago Reporter investigation has found.
And the care offered at his facilities is markedly different between those with predominantly black clientele and those that mainly serve whites.
Floyd Schlossberg has an ownership stake in 30 nursing homes, most in metropolitan Chicago.
"The Reporter analyzed federal nursing home data and racial data on 21 of the homes provided by researchers at Brown University and found racial disparities in the care that Schlossberg’s residents received," the investigative publication says.
"Each of the three predominantly black facilities received the lowest possible rating in 2009 from Nursing Home Compare, a federal database to evaluate nursing homes that are Medicare- and Medicaid-certified. Less than half of Schlossberg’s 16 predominantly white facilities received that same rating," the Reporter found. "Two facilities received the highest ratings. At both facilities, located in Evanston and Skokie, at least 84 percent of the residents were white."
Schlossberg, an equal opportunity campaign contributor, landed second on the Reporter's list of worst owners, behind Mark B. Petersen.
Schlossberg refused to talk to the Reporter, but says on the website of his company, Alden Health Care & Senior Living that "Alden is committed to delivering quality care and service."
Schlossberg once spent 19 days in one of his own facilities rehabbing from hip surgery, according to a Chicago Hospital News article from last year.
The one in Skokie.
He denied receiving special treatment.
"At Alden, every rehabilitation patient is a VIP," he said.
But Alden has already faced 13 lawsuits in Cook County in the last five years and may face a 14th soon. "That’s more than three times the lawsuits than half of the city’s 91 nursing homes; the median is four lawsuits," the Reporter notes.
"For the philosophical reasons I chose to be in this business, our company will always be there for seniors, including the Medicaid population," Schlossberg says on his website. "They are the people who are the backbone of our nation - parents, grandparents, veterans from WWII, the Korean War. We owe them the best we have to offer.”
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jun 2, 2009 9:04 AM CST
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