210 ILCS 45/3-212
2021 Illinois Compiled Statutes|Chapter 210 - HEALTH FACILITIES AND REGULATION|210 ILCS 45/ - Nursing Home Care Act.|Article III - Licensing, Enforcement, Violations, Penalties And Remedies

 (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 4153-212)Sec. 3-212. Inspection.(a) The Department, whenever it deems necessary in  accordance with subsection (b), shall inspect, survey and evaluate every  facility to determine compliance with applicable licensure requirements and  standards. Submission of a facility's current Consumer Choice Information Report required by Section 2-214 shall be verified at time of inspection.  An inspection should occur within 120 days prior  to license renewal.  The Department may periodically visit a facility for the  purpose of consultation.  An inspection, survey, or evaluation, other than  an inspection of financial records, shall be conducted without prior notice  to the facility.  A visit for the sole purpose of consultation may be  announced.  The Department shall provide training to surveyors about the appropriate  assessment, care planning, and care of persons with mental illness (other than  Alzheimer's disease or related disorders) to enable its surveyors to  determine whether a facility is complying with State and federal requirements  about the assessment, care planning, and care of those persons.(a-1) An employee of a State or unit of local government agency  charged with inspecting, surveying, and evaluating facilities who directly  or indirectly gives prior notice of an inspection, survey, or evaluation,  other than an inspection of financial records, to a facility or to an  employee of a facility is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.An inspector or an employee of the Department who intentionally prenotifies  a facility,  orally or in writing, of a pending complaint investigation or inspection shall  be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.  Superiors of persons who have prenotified a facility shall be subject to the  same penalties, if they have knowingly allowed the prenotification.  A person  found guilty of prenotifying a facility shall be subject to disciplinary action  by his or her employer.If the Department has a good faith belief, based upon information that comes  to its attention, that a violation of this subsection has occurred, it must  file a complaint with the Attorney General or the State's Attorney in the  county where the violation  took place within 30 days after discovery of the information.(a-2) An employee of a State or unit of local government agency charged with  inspecting, surveying, or evaluating facilities who willfully profits from  violating the confidentiality of the inspection, survey, or evaluation  process shall be guilty of a Class 4 felony and that conduct shall be deemed  unprofessional conduct that may subject a person to loss of his or her  professional license. An action to prosecute a person for violating this  subsection (a-2) may be brought by either the Attorney General or the State's  Attorney in the county where the violation took place.(b) In determining whether to make more than the required number of  unannounced inspections, surveys and evaluations of a facility the  Department shall consider one or more of the following: previous inspection  reports; the facility's history of compliance with standards, rules and  regulations promulgated under this Act and correction of violations,  penalties or other enforcement actions; the number and severity of  complaints received about the facility; any allegations of resident abuse  or neglect; weather conditions; health emergencies; other reasonable belief  that deficiencies exist.(b-1) The Department shall not be required to determine whether a  facility certified to participate in the Medicare program under Title XVIII of  the Social Security Act, or the Medicaid program under Title XIX of the Social  Security Act, and which the Department determines by inspection under this  Section or under Section 3-702 of this Act to be in compliance with the  certification requirements of Title XVIII or XIX, is in compliance with any  requirement of this Act that is less stringent than or duplicates a federal  certification requirement.  In accordance with subsection (a) of this Section  or subsection (d) of Section 3-702, the Department shall determine whether a  certified facility is in  compliance with requirements of this Act that exceed federal certification  requirements.  If a certified facility is found to be out of compliance with  federal certification requirements, the results of an inspection conducted  pursuant to Title XVIII or XIX of the Social Security Act may be used as the  basis for enforcement remedies authorized and commenced, with the Department's discretion to evaluate whether penalties are warranted, under this Act.  Enforcement of this Act against a certified facility shall be commenced  pursuant to the requirements of this Act, unless enforcement remedies sought  pursuant to Title XVIII or XIX of the Social Security Act exceed those  authorized by this Act.  As used in this subsection, "enforcement remedy"  means a sanction for violating a federal certification requirement or this  Act.(c) Upon completion of each inspection, survey and evaluation, the  appropriate Department personnel who conducted the inspection, survey or  evaluation shall submit a copy of their report to the licensee upon exiting  the facility, and shall submit the actual report to the appropriate  regional office of the Department.  Such report and any recommendations for  action by the Department under this Act shall be transmitted to the  appropriate offices of the associate director of the Department, together  with related comments or documentation provided by the licensee which may  refute findings in the report, which explain extenuating circumstances that  the facility could not reasonably have prevented, or which indicate methods  and timetables for correction of deficiencies described in the report.  Without affecting the application of subsection (a) of Section 3-303, any  documentation or comments of the licensee shall be provided within 10  days of receipt of the copy of the report.  Such report shall recommend to  the Director appropriate action under this Act with respect to findings  against a facility.  The Director shall then determine whether the report's  findings constitute a violation or violations of which the facility must be  given notice.  Such determination shall be based upon the severity of the  finding, the danger posed to resident health and safety, the comments and  documentation provided by the facility, the diligence and efforts to  correct deficiencies, correction of the reported deficiencies, the  frequency and duration of similar findings in previous reports and the  facility's general inspection history.  Violations shall be determined  under this subsection no later than 75 days after completion of each  inspection, survey and evaluation.(d) The Department shall maintain all inspection, survey and evaluation  reports for at least 5 years in a manner accessible to and understandable  by the public.(e) Revisit surveys. The Department shall conduct a revisit to its licensure and certification surveys, consistent with federal regulations and guidelines.(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the Department shall, no later than 180 days after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 98th General Assembly, implement a single survey process that encompasses federal certification and State licensure requirements, health and life safety requirements, and an enhanced complaint investigation initiative.(1) To meet the requirement of a single survey     process, the portions of the health and life safety survey associated with federal certification and State licensure surveys must be started within 7 working days of each other. Nothing in this paragraph (1) of subsection (f) of this Section applies to a complaint investigation.(2) The enhanced complaint and incident report     investigation initiative shall permit the facility to challenge the amount of the fine due to the excessive length of the investigation which results in one or more of the following conditions:(A) prohibits the timely development and         implementation of a plan of correction;(B) creates undue financial hardship impacting         the quality of care delivered to the resident;(C) delays initiation of corrective training; and(D) negatively impacts quality assurance and         patient improvement standards.This paragraph (2) does not apply to complaint     investigations exited within 14 working days or a situation that triggers an extended survey.(Source: P.A. 98-104, eff. 7-22-13.)