Riverside Police File Complaint Against Nursing Home

RIVERSIDE, IL — A resident from Lydia Healthcare Center in Robbins was still missing earlier this month after a field trip to Brookfield Zoo, but the nursing home wanted him removed from the national missing list, Riverside police said Tuesday. The police department refused to do so and later filed a complaint against the nursing home with the state.

Lydia Healthcare Center resident Fredric Davis went missing during a trip Dec. 14 at the Brookfield Zoo. He got into an argument and walked away from his caregivers and could be seen on video leaving the zoo alone, police said. The nursing home group of about 30 to 35 people left the zoo and returned to Robbins. Once there, a nursing supervisor called Riverside police to file a missing person report on Davis, police said.

Three days later, a supervisor at Lydia Healthcare asked Riverside to remove Davis' name from the National Database of Missing Persons, according to a Riverside police news release. When a Riverside police supervisor asked whether the nursing home had found Davis or knew of his whereabouts, the nursing home supervisor said the home did not, the release said.

"That was the first time in my career of 35 years plus that someone had asked to take someone's name out of the system before we found them," Chief Tom Weitzel said in an interview.

While Lydia Healthcare was technically the complainant in the case, Weitzel said he told his department not to remove Davis from the list and that Riverside would take over as the complainant.

Davis, 53, was found later the same day in downtown Chicago. That was thanks to social media and news publicity about Davis' disappearance, Weitzel said.

On Dec. 18, Weitzel wrote a letter to the Office of the State Guardian, which advocates for those with disabilities, to look into the situation.

"I just want to make sure that this does not happen again. They tried to influence us to take him off the list," Weitzel said to Patch.

Susan Simonsen, who is listed as Lydia Healthcare's owner in the state database, did not return a message for comment. The nursing home administrator listed in the state database no longer works there, a receptionist said.

When Patch reached a Lydia Healthcare supervisor's office about Davis, a woman answering the phone said, "He's been found. I don't want to get involved in this kind of b-------" and then hung up.

The state database indicates Lydia Healthcare, which cares for those with mental illnesses, has 412 beds. None of the beds are occupied by people covered by Medicaid or Medicare, the database indicates. This is unusual for a nursing home, especially in a town such as Robbins, where nearly 40 percent of the population is in poverty.

Lydia Healthcare, which cares for those with mental illnesses, is not listed in the database maintained by the federal agency that manages the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. And the state database includes no information on any state inspections.

Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health, said surveys for facilities specializing in mental illness are not necessarily on the state website, adding, "I imagine we have some." She said she would try to get more information on inspections of Lydia Healthcare.

Arnold confirmed Lydia Healthcare is licensed by her department. But she said she could not say whether it was planning to inspect the nursing home in response to any complaints.

"Our inspections are not announced," Arnold said.

The regional Office of the State Guardian could not be reached for comment Tuesday.