Effingham Healthcare: Infection Control Failures Found - IL
The aide, identified in inspection records only as V13, acknowledged after the fact that she should have put on a gown and gloves before starting the resident's perineal and bowel incontinence care. She didn't. The resident, identified as R1, had wounds and an indwelling medical device, placing them in a category where the Centers for Disease Control specifically requires that staff wear a gown and gloves for high-contact care, regardless of whether the resident has already tested positive for a drug-resistant organism.
V13 told inspectors she knew the requirement. She said she had been trained. She said she should have applied the enhanced barrier precautions before she started.
She didn't explain why she hadn't.
The CDC guidance at issue, updated in April 2024, is unambiguous. For nursing home residents with wounds or indwelling medical devices, gown and gloves during high-contact care activities are required under what the agency calls Enhanced Barrier Precautions. The point is to prevent the spread of multidrug-resistant organisms, pathogens that have become increasingly difficult to treat and that move easily between residents in congregate care settings when protective protocols break down.
The facility's own written policy, last revised in February 2018, lists personal protective equipment, including gowns, gloves, and masks as needed, among the supplies staff are required to gather before beginning perineal care. The procedure instructs staff to arrange those supplies within reach before touching the resident. V13 skipped that step entirely.
When inspectors spoke with the Director of Nursing, identified as V2, on the afternoon of November 24, she said her expectation is that all staff follow policy and procedure for perineal and bowel incontinence care. The administrator, V1, said the same thing, nearly word for word, thirty minutes later.
Neither offered an explanation for how a trained aide came to skip a foundational infection control step, or how the lapse went undetected until a complaint prompted inspectors to come in.
The inspection, conducted on November 26, 2025, was triggered by a complaint. Inspectors cited the facility under F0880, the federal tag covering infection prevention and control. The citation was classified as causing minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and inspectors determined that few residents were affected.
What that classification doesn't capture is the specific vulnerability of the resident at the center of this incident. R1 had wounds. An open wound in a care environment where drug-resistant bacteria circulate is not an abstract risk. It is a direct pathway. The purpose of enhanced barrier precautions, as the CDC frames it, is to interrupt that pathway before an infection takes hold, not to respond after one does.
The facility's own perineal care policy states its purpose plainly: to provide cleanliness and comfort, to prevent infections and skin irritation, and to observe the resident's skin condition. On the day V13 cared for R1, at least one of those purposes went unprotected.
Whether R1 developed any infection as a result of the lapse, the inspection report does not say.
Full Inspection Report
The details above represent a summary of key findings. View the complete inspection report for Effingham Healthcare & Senior Living from 2025-11-26 including all violations, facility responses, and corrective action plans.
Additional Resources
Data source: This article is based on inspection data downloaded directly from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) via Medicare.gov. CMS releases inspection reports in bulk; we publish the findings as documented by state surveyors in the official Form CMS-2567 Statement of Deficiencies.
Plan of correction: The CMS report we receive does not include the facility's plan of correction. Facilities submit plans of correction separately to state survey agencies and those responses may not be reflected in CMS data at the time of publication. The absence of a plan of correction in our data does not mean one was not filed. Readers who want information about corrective steps taken are encouraged to contact the facility directly or their state survey agency.
Corrections may have occurred: Inspection reports reflect conditions observed on the date of the survey. Facilities may have implemented corrections, staffing changes, additional training, or other remediation since the report was issued. We report what CMS provides and encourage readers to seek current information from the facility.
Editorial process: Inspection findings are extracted from CMS source documents and synthesized using AI, reviewed for factual accuracy against the original report by our editorial team.
Professional review: All content reviewed by Christopher F. Nesbitt, Sr., NH EMT & BU-trained Paralegal.
Last verified: September 19, 2026 · Our methodology
EFFINGHAM HEALTHCARE & SENIOR LIVING in EFFINGHAM, IL was cited for violations during a health inspection on November 26, 2025.
V13 told inspectors she knew the requirement.
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.