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AARP Protecting Elderly Residents

“For many years Alden has engaged in an ongoing practice of profiting from systematically and knowingly understaffing the Alden facilities, causing dangerous, distressing, and grossly unsanitary living conditions for thousands of residents.”

UNSAFE STAFFING

AARP filed a class action for unsafe staffing against Alden Group, one of the largest health care providers for older adults in Illinois. Floyd Schlossberg and his family own, control, and manage the nursing homes. The suit names six Alden facilities that are home to 1,400 vulnerable people. Alden’s understaffing and neglect violate both that law and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. The case is Doe v. Alden Group Ltd, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, No. 2022-CH-09574.

AARP’s lawsuit accuses the company of endangering residents by understaffing facilities, leading to illness and injury. AARP hopes to end chronic and intentional understaffing at the facilities.  The complaint alleges Alden attracts thousands of residents to its facilities, and then systematically understaffs those facilities. This causes neglect, preventable injuries and illnesses, and grossly unsanitary living conditions for the residents.

“They have no excuse. They have a $200 million revenue stream and they can do better. They’ve chosen not to.”

–Kelly Bagby, vice president of litigation for the AARP Foundation and co-counsel for plaintiffs.
Alden profits by operating its facilities with inadequate numbers of certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses. Numerous examples of how residents were neglected, injured or suffered preventable health conditions exist. “Ghost staffing” is when nursing homes use falsified work schedules to include names of former employees that did not actually work.

ARBITRATION

Alden’s profit-driven scheme also requires residents to sign illegal admission agreements that prevent them from suing when injuries do occur due to the understaffing. The suit is also seeking an end to Alden’s practice of having residents sign agreements waiving legal claims and requiring arbitration. The Illinois Nursing Home Care Act prohibits such amoral practice.