Westwood Village Nursing: Racial Slur Abuse Unflagged - IL
Federal inspectors arrived at the Chicago facility on August 25, 2025, following a complaint. What they found was documented in staff interviews and the resident's own medical chart: a pattern of escalating confrontations between two residents, culminating on August 10 in an incident that a licensed practical nurse later described as verbal abuse, and that the facility's own policies define in language that leaves no room for interpretation.
The LPN who documented the August 10 incident in the medical record wrote it plainly. R2, the resident who received the slur, was in his room when the other resident approached him. The approaching resident called him the N-word. She told him she was going to call the state and the police. She threatened to have him placed in county jail. He told her to leave him alone, that he wasn't bothering her. She kept going. Staff separated them.
That note was written by V13, the LPN who had been working with R2. When inspectors interviewed her on August 24, she said R1 does not like R2. She said she heard R1 cursing but couldn't identify the specific words beyond what she had already documented. She said the incident could be viewed as verbal abuse to both residents because of the raising of voices and the yelling and the threatening. She said the administrator was informed.
The administrator has been at this facility for 32 years. She is also, by her own description to inspectors, the facility's abuse coordinator. When surveyors spoke with her on August 24, she listed the types of abuse the facility is supposed to prevent: physical, verbal, mental, sexual, exploitation, involuntary seclusion, neglect, chemical restraint. She said verbal abuse includes screaming, yelling, cursing, name-calling, demeaning and belittling residents. She said the goal is for all residents to be free of any abuse in the facility.
She did not explain to inspectors what formal steps, if any, she had taken after being informed that one resident had called another a racial slur in his own room and threatened to have him jailed.
The facility's abuse prevention policy, dated February 2017, defines verbal abuse as the use of oral language that willfully includes disparaging and derogatory terms to residents, regardless of age, ability to comprehend, or disability. It lists threats of harm and saying things to frighten a resident as examples. The residents' rights policy, dated November 2018, states that residents must not be abused by anyone, financially, physically, verbally, mentally, or sexually.
The August 10 incident was not the only one. Staff described a history of the two residents encountering each other and the encounters going badly. V9, a staff member interviewed by inspectors, said she had witnessed R1 cursing at R2 and telling him to get the f out of her way. She said both residents were exchanging words. She said she thought the administrator was aware because nurses had heard or witnessed the verbal abuse at the time.
A CNA identified as V12 told inspectors on August 24 that he had seen R1 and R2 yelling and screaming at each other on a weekend a couple of weeks before the inspection. He said R2 had cursed at R1, telling her f you, I am tired of this shit, I want the f out of here, I am tired of that b. He said R1 cursed back: f you, f*** off. V12 said he thought the administrator knew about it. He said staff had to break up and control the situation.
Another CNA, V15, told inspectors she knew both residents and had seen them scream and yell at each other. She said R1 does not want to be around R2. She said R2 could be verbally and physically abusive with staff and would try to hit staff. She could not recall the specific words used.
What emerges from the interviews is a picture of two residents with a documented history of conflict, staff who witnessed multiple incidents and believed management was informed each time, and a facility leadership that defined verbal abuse clearly and comprehensively to inspectors while offering no account of what had been done about the most serious incident on record, the one where a resident was called a racial slur in her own room and told she would be put in jail.
The Director of Nursing, interviewed at 2:16 in the afternoon on August 24, said that residents in the facility should be free from abuse. She gave the same definition of verbal abuse that the administrator gave: belittling, name-calling, cursing, screaming and yelling. She did not describe any investigation or intervention specific to the August 10 incident.
The inspection was classified at the level of minimal harm or potential for actual harm, and the number of residents affected was listed as few. Those designations are part of the federal deficiency classification system and reflect the scope and severity as inspectors assessed them at the time of the survey.
R2, the resident who received the racial slur, is described in his medical record and in staff interviews as alert and oriented. The LPN who has worked with him said he is easily agitated, that he curses and yells at staff. None of that is in dispute. What is also in the record is that he was in his room, not bothering anyone, when another resident walked in and called him a word that has been used for generations to demean and threaten Black people in this country, and told him she was going to use the legal system to have him removed and imprisoned.
He told her to leave him alone.
Staff separated them, and someone told the administrator, the woman who has worked at this facility for 32 years and who serves as its designated abuse coordinator, and who told federal inspectors that the goal is for all residents to be free of any abuse in the facility.
R2 is still a resident there.
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.
Download the official CMS inspection PDF from Medicare.gov
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 22, 2026 · Our methodology
WESTWOOD VLGE NRSG AND RHB CTR in CHICAGO, IL was cited for abuse-related violations during a health inspection on August 25, 2025.
Federal inspectors arrived at the Chicago facility on August 25, 2025, following a complaint.
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.