Judge orders inspection of Cicero nursing home plagued by COVID-19

CICERO, Ill. - A Cook County Judge is ordering the state to conduct an emergency inspection of a Cicero nursing home plagued by the coronavirus.

The order comes after the town of Cicero filed suit against the nursing home and state, saying nobody was doing anything about it.

Last week, Cicero filed a lawsuit against City View MultiCare Center and the Illinois Department of Public health, alleging that town inspectors found the center’s employees were not wearing masks and other PPE.

More than 200 residents and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 and nine of them have died.

The lawsuit says state regulators failed to react to their findings and have not yet conducted any kind of inspection of the nursing home.

On Tuesday, during a court hearing conducted on Zoom, Cook County Judge Alison Conlon expressed surprise: “It seems obvious to me an inspection needs to happen to see the actual conditions, and it needs to happen quickly.”

Judge Conlon ordered the Illinois Department of Public Health to send a team of inspectors into the nursing home within 48 hours, and then report back to the judge on Friday.

Governor JB Pritzker defends the state’s response to outbreaks in nursing homes and says they are doing all they can with thin resources to stay on top of it.

“We work with all the local departments of public health to try to make sure that nursing homes are doing the right thing,” the governor said.

Cicero wants the state to move all the infected patients out of this nursing home and into alternative care facilities. But the state says that would actually create more problems than it would solve.

A spokesperson for the nursing home says 90-percent of residents who tested positive remain symptom free and that they are happy the state has agreed to conduct an inspection.