Opinion ID: 2234743
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Effect of Nursing Home Act

Text: AUL contends that various provisions of the Nursing Home Care Reform Act of 1979 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4151-101 et seq. ) require that the nursing home where Mr. Greenspan resides continue to give him food and water and that the Act thus forbids the relief sought by the public guardian. AUL points to a provision contemplating that nursing homes will furnish residents with personal care, sheltered care or nursing (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4151-113), sheltered care being defined as maintenance and personal care (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4151-124), maintenance being defined as food, shelter and laundry services (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4151-116), and personal care being defined as including assistance with meals    whether or not a guardian has been appointed (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4151-120). In addition, AUL cites a provision that neglect is a failure in a facility to provide adequate medical or personal care or maintenance, which failure results in physical or mental injury to a resident or in the deterioration of a resident's physical or mental condition. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4151-117.) While admitting that a resident has the right to refuse medical treatment (see Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4152-104(b)), AUL asserts that the right does not extend to the resident's guardian. Compare Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4152-104(b), with Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4152-104(c). We find these contentions by AUL to be immaterial. The public guardian does not request that Mr. Greenspan's artificial nutrition and hydration be discontinued either by or at the nursing home where he resides. The Act specifically grants a resident's guardian the right to procure the resident's discharge. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4152-111.) In any event, even before discharge, the Act contains no provision forbidding a nursing home from acting in accordance with a court order. A patient has the right to obtain or refuse medical treatment (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4152-104), and not even the Department of Public Health is permitted to prescribe the course of treatment by a resident's personal physician (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4153-201). We do not believe that generalized references to providing food, water, and meals should override either a resident's specific right to refuse medical treatment, the definition of health or medical care found elsewhere in our law ( e.g., Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 110 1/2, pars. 804-10(a), (b)(1); Longeway, 133 Ill.2d at 41), or, for that matter (in any case to which they were pertinent), a resident's religious rights (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4152-109). In fact, the Act imposes liability on a nursing home for acts or omissions that injure residents (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1987, ch. 111 1/2, par. 4153-601), and Dr. Burke testified that continued artificial nutrition and hydration facilitate additional devastation by an Alzheimer's type of brain syndrome from which Mr. Greenspan suffers. Whether or not maintaining the feeding tube would actually result in such liability for the nursing home, the Act clearly does not forbid awarding the public guardian the relief sought.