Claridge Healthcare Center: Resident Assault Violations - IL
The resident, identified in inspection records as R4, was sitting at a table in the dining area at 8:45 AM on September 3, 2025, when a federal surveyor walked in. His left eye socket was dark purple and heavily bruised. The white of his eye had turned red. Several steri-strips ran along the outer edge of his left temple. When the surveyor tried to speak with him, R4 said he was okay. When asked whether his eye was hurting him, he said no.
The fight had happened the day before, September 2.
Staff were in the dining room feeding residents when the other resident, identified as R5, came in and told them someone needed to get R4 out of his room. A certified nursing assistant identified in the report as V20 said she was present when it happened. She told the surveyor she instructed another CNA to go check on the situation. The next thing she knew, she said, it had escalated and they were fighting.
Nobody had gone in time.
R4 was taken to a local hospital, where doctors performed a CT scan of both his head and spine. The scans came back negative for bleeding or fractures. He did not need sutures. The hospital diagnosed him with a facial contusion and sent him back to the facility with steri-strips on his temple. An incident report filed that same day noted he returned at 4:00 PM and was stable.
The other resident involved, R7, told the surveyor he did not see the altercation because he was at lunch when it happened, but he heard the yelling. He described R4's habit plainly: the other guy comes into our room all the time and eats jelly off my nightstand, he said, but usually he leaves on his own.
Usually.
V20 confirmed what R7 described. R4, she told the surveyor, goes in and out of other residents' rooms frequently. He is confused about which room is his. He will usually come right out on his own. The implication in both accounts is that this was not new behavior, that staff knew R4 wandered into other residents' spaces, and that the expectation had been that he would simply leave when he was ready.
On September 3, at 11:07 AM, the facility's administrator, identified in the report as V1, told the surveyor directly: when a resident hits another resident, it is abuse.
The facility's own abuse prevention policy, last revised on July 30, 2012, states that the facility will prevent abuse and that all residents have the right to be free from it. The policy lists physical abuse as hitting, slapping, pinching, kicking, or controlling behaviors.
The deficiency cited by inspectors falls under F0600, which addresses the right of residents to be free from abuse. The level of harm was listed as minimal harm or potential for actual harm. The number of residents affected was listed as few.
What the inspection record does not resolve is the gap between what staff knew and what they did about it. V20 knew R4 wandered. R7 knew R4 wandered. The pattern was familiar enough that R7 could describe it to a federal surveyor in a single sentence: usually he leaves on his own. The question the report raises without fully answering is whether anyone had taken steps to interrupt that pattern before September 2, before R5 walked into the dining room to find staff himself, before a CNA was sent down the hall too late.
The administrator's statement, that resident-on-resident hitting constitutes abuse, was offered as fact. It was not offered alongside any account of what the facility had done, before the fight, to prevent it.
R4 was back in the dining room the morning after his hospital visit. His eye was purple. The sclera of his eye was red. He told the surveyor he was okay, and he told the surveyor his eye did not hurt. Whether that was true, or whether it was the answer a confused man gives to a stranger asking questions over breakfast, the inspection report does not say.
The complaint inspection was completed on September 3, 2025. The facility is located at 700 Jenkisson Avenue in Lake Bluff.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Claridge Healthcare Center from 2025-09-03 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: Official federal inspection data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Editorial process: AI-synthesized regulatory data, reviewed for accuracy by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: August 5, 2026 · Our methodology
CLARIDGE HEALTHCARE CENTER in LAKE BLUFF, IL was cited for violations during a health inspection on September 3, 2025.
His left eye socket was dark purple and heavily bruised.
Health inspections identify deficiencies that facilities must correct. Violations range from minor documentation issues to serious safety concerns. Review the full report below for specific details and facility response.