Westwood Village Nursing: Racial Slur Abuse Unfiled - IL

Federal inspectors arrived on August 25, 2025, responding to a complaint. What they found was an incident that had occurred more than two weeks earlier, on August 10, with no meaningful institutional response in the intervening time.

The incident began when Resident 1 entered Resident 2's room. According to a progress note written that same day by a licensed practical nurse identified in the inspection report as V13, Resident 1 approached Resident 2 and called him a racial slur. She then told him she was going to call the state and the police and have him arrested. She threatened to have him placed in county jail. Resident 2 told her to leave him alone, that he wasn't bothering her. She kept making what the nurse's note described as "inappropriate statements." Staff separated the two residents.

V13 told inspectors she heard Resident 1 cursing but could not identify or remember every specific word. She did remember the racial slur. She said Resident 1 does not like Resident 2.

That clinical note existed in Resident 2's electronic health record. It was there when inspectors arrived. It had been there for fifteen days.

A certified nursing assistant identified as V9 told inspectors the altercation happened "a couple of weekends ago." She said both residents were yelling, screaming, and cursing at each other, that Resident 1 told Resident 2 to "shut the f" and that Resident 2 cursed back. She said staff separated them. She described it plainly as verbal abuse between the two residents. She said she believed the administrator was aware of it because nurses had heard or witnessed the exchange at the time.

Another CNA, V12, gave inspectors a more detailed account of what Resident 2 said during the altercation. He said Resident 2 yelled "F you. I am tired of this shit. I want the f out of here. I am tired of that b*." He said Resident 1 cursed back. He also said he thought the administrator knew. He called it verbal abuse between the two residents.

V13, the LPN, added context about Resident 2's baseline: alert and oriented, easily agitated, prone to cursing, yelling, and screaming at staff. She said during the August 10 incident the two residents were "going back and forth," voices raised. She confirmed they were separated and that the administrator was informed.

A fourth CNA, V15, said she had worked with Resident 2 and knew Resident 1. She said the two residents screamed and yelled at each other, and that Resident 1 does not want to be around Resident 2. She said she could not recall the specific words used.

Four staff members. The same general account. The administrator told. No investigation.

When inspectors sat down with the Director of Nursing, identified as V2, she gave them a crisp definition of verbal abuse: belittling, name calling, cursing, screaming and yelling at each other. She said residents in the facility should be free from abuse.

The administrator, V1, offered her own definition when inspectors interviewed her. She listed the types of abuse the facility recognizes: physical, verbal, mental, sexual, exploitation, involuntary seclusion, neglect, chemical restraint. For verbal abuse specifically, she said it includes screaming, yelling, cursing, calling out names, demeaning and belittling a resident. She said the goal is for all residents to be free of any abuse in the facility.

She has been working at the facility for 32 years. She is the abuse coordinator. She was told about an incident in which one resident called another resident a racial slur, threatened him with arrest and incarceration, and had to be physically separated from him by staff.

The facility's own abuse prevention policy, dated February 2017, defines verbal abuse as the use of oral language that "willfully includes disparaging and derogatory terms to residents," and lists threats of harm and saying things to frighten a resident as examples. The facility's residents' rights policy states that residents must not be abused, neglected, or exploited by anyone, whether financially, physically, verbally, mentally, or sexually.

Both policies describe exactly what happened on August 10. Neither appears to have been applied to what happened on August 10.

The inspection deficiency was cited under F0600, which covers abuse prohibition. Inspectors classified the level of harm as minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and noted that few residents were affected. The citation does not describe any corrective action the facility had taken in the weeks between the incident and the inspection.

What the report does not contain is any account from Resident 2 about what it was like to be called a racial slur by a neighbor in the place where he lives, or what it was like to be threatened with arrest and jail, or what it was like to watch two weeks pass with no word that anyone in charge had treated what happened to him as something worth investigating.

The progress note V13 wrote on August 10 ends with four words: "Residents were separated at this time."

That was the response. Separation. And then, for Resident 2, fifteen more days of living in the same building as the woman who called him the N-word, with no documented indication that the facility's abuse coordinator, the woman who has run this building for 32 years and who can define verbal abuse on command, had done anything about it at all.

Full Inspection Report

The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Westwood Vlge Nrsg and Rhb Ctr from 2025-08-25 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.

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