Every week, families call our office with heartbreaking stories about what happened inside an Illinois nursing home. A loved one was struggling to breathe, calling for help, and no one came. Vital signs were ignored. The staff brushed off serious alarms as “baseline.” Later, the resident was in the ICU, and the family was left asking how something like this could happen in a licensed facility.

When you hear stories like that, the first and most understandable response is to ask, “Can we sue?” That’s a question we’ll absolutely talk to you about—but a lawsuit takes time. Medical records have to be gathered, reviewed, and analyzed before we can fully evaluate what happened. You don’t want to feel like you’re just waiting while nothing happens, though, and there’s one very productive and important step you can take right away: a phone call to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

Calling the IDPH can be one of the most powerful—and overlooked—steps a family can take after a nursing-home injury. It protects your loved one, exposes systemic neglect, and creates an early investigative record that later becomes invaluable in court.

This post explains what the IDPH does, how the process works, and why making that call often helps build a stronger legal case.

1. The Role of the IDPH

The Illinois Department of Public Health is the state agency responsible for licensing and regulating nursing homes, skilled-care facilities, and rehabilitation centers. It enforces the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act (210 ILCS 45)—a statute designed to ensure residents receive adequate and humane care.

When a complaint is filed, the IDPH’s Division of Health Care Facilities and Programs opens an investigation. These investigators are not lawyers; they’re trained nurses, medical professionals, and regulators who understand clinical standards of care. Their job is to determine whether the facility violated state or federal rules governing patient safety, staffing, supervision, infection control, or resident rights.

If they find deficiencies, the facility can face fines, probation, or even license suspension. But even more important for families: the IDPH’s findings create an official, independent record that becomes a valuable piece of evidence in any civil case.

2. What Happens When You Call

The process begins with a phone call to the IDPH Nursing Home Complaint Hotline (1-800-252-4343). You can also submit complaints online or by mail. The intake process usually includes:

• Your contact information and your relationship to the resident.
• The facility’s name and location.
• A factual description of what happened—including names, dates, times, and witnesses if known.
• The outcome or harm.

Once a complaint is filed, the IDPH logs it and classifies it according to priority level:

• Immediate jeopardy complaints—where life or safety was in immediate danger—trigger an on-site investigation within 24 hours.
• High priority complaints—serious but not immediately life-threatening—are usually investigated within 7 working days.
• Routine complaints are reviewed in due course, sometimes through record review rather than a full site visit.

In an on-site investigation, an IDPH surveyor will:

• Visit the facility unannounced.
• Interview staff, residents, and sometimes family members.
• Review charts, treatment notes, and internal incident reports.
• Observe the facility’s current conditions (for example, oxygen setups, nurse-to-patient ratios, or infection-control procedures).

At the end of the process, the IDPH issues a written report summarizing what was found and whether the facility violated any regulations. If violations are confirmed, the report will cite the specific rules broken and detail how staff, supervisors, or administrators failed to meet their obligations.

3. Why Calling IDPH Strengthens a Legal Case

From a legal standpoint, that report does three powerful things.

A. It Establishes a Timely, Independent Record

In nursing-home cases, records often disappear. Facilities delay production, “lose” pages, or hand over redacted material months later. By contrast, an IDPH investigator arrives within days or weeks, collects records directly from the facility, and preserves them before anyone can alter or destroy them.

That means even if the family later sues, the investigator’s notes can verify what the chart looked like right after the incident—when oxygen levels, nurses’ notes, and vital-sign logs were still fresh and intact.

B. It Identifies Staff and Witnesses Early

An IDPH investigation often lists staff members by title or interview number (for example, “R1,” “R2,” “LPN #3,” etc.). Although anonymized, those identifiers point your legal team toward who was on duty, who made which observations, and who can later be subpoenaed. In many cases, the facility’s own employees make statements to IDPH that directly contradict the company’s later defenses.

C. Why Families Hesitate to Call—And Why They Shouldn’t

When fines are levied, or licensing violations implemented, famiilies can feel some peace that early actions are being taken against the facility. That’s an early win while the court process goes on. Also, families often hesitate to contact regulators because they fear retaliation against their loved one. Illinois law specifically prohibits that. Section 3-814 of the Nursing Home Care Act protects residents from any adverse action for filing or participating in a complaint.

Another common concern is that calling the IDPH might “mess up the lawsuit.” It won’t. The legal and regulatory systems operate independently. 

From experience, the families who call early often end up with more complete medical records, clearer timelines, and stronger credibility when litigation begins.

4. A Case Study

To illustrate how this works, imagine a case that mirrors one discussed in a recent client call (details changed for confidentiality).

A man with pneumonia was transferred from a hospital to a skilled-care facility for rehabilitation and oxygen therapy. The family confirmed before admission that the facility was “equipped to handle respiratory patients.” Within hours of arrival, the resident couldn’t breathe. Staff weren’t responding. Each call to the nurse’s station got the same response: “he’s fine.”

In reality, he wasn’t fine at all. His oxygen administrator was faulty. No oxygen was reaching him. When paramedics finally arrived, saturation was at a life-threatening level. 

The family calls the IDPH. Investigators arrive at the facility within days, interview nursing staff, and review equipment maintenance logs. They look to confirm multiple deficiencies: failure to monitor oxygen delivery, delayed emergency response, and inaccurate recording of vital signs. The two RNs on duty are interviewed, as well as the DON. The report independently establishes:

• The oxygen tubing was not checked despite the resident’s complaints.
• Staff delayed calling emergency services.
• The facility’s own employees lacked training to recognize the problem.

All employees get identified by designation (example: “R2”) – but these can be matched up later, once a case is filed, with names the facility produces in sworn responses. The employees can be deposed and grilled over the accounts they’ve now already given. 

5. How Attorneys Use IDPH Findings

When we receive an IDPH report, we analyze it in three main ways:

A. Identifying the Breach of Care

If the report cites violations such as:

“Failure to monitor and document oxygen flow,”

“Failure to respond to complaints of respiratory distress,” or

“Failure to ensure equipment was functioning,”

those findings help establish the standard of care and how it was breached.

B. Supporting Causation

In cases involving brain injury or death, we still need medical testimony to connect the event to the outcome. The IDPH report becomes the foundation for that testimony—shining a flashlight on who at the facility was involved at the time of injury or steps that staff thereafter failed to take.

C. Demonstrating Pattern and Notice

Facilities rarely have just one violation. IDPH databases show prior citations for similar problems—falls, medication errors, or improper  . Sometimes a pattern of citations helps prove that the facility knew or should have known about its staffing or training deficiencies and still failed to correct them.

6. Steps to Take If You Suspect Neglect

If you believe your loved one suffered neglect or medical injury inside a nursing home or rehab center:

Seek immediate medical attention. Get the resident to a hospital if you suspect oxygen loss, infection, or stroke. It’s common to worry and ask yourself “What do I do?!” Be confident and take the action for emergency help.

Document everything. Keep notes of times, names, and phone calls. Save voicemails or messages from staff. These details fade quickly. You often find you can’t remember who the RN was on duty at an important time.

Request records early. Ask for the resident’s chart, vital-sign logs, and care plan in writing.

Call the IDPH Nursing Home Complaint Hotline: 1-800-252-4343 (available 24/7).

Consult an attorney experienced in nursing-home litigation. Legal counsel can incorporate the IDPH investigation into your civil claim.

7. Frequently Asked Questions About IDPH Complaints

Does the IDPH give me compensation?

No. The IDPH’s role is regulatory, not compensatory. It can fine or sanction the facility, but only a civil lawsuit can recover damages for pain, suffering, or wrongful death.

Can I stay anonymous?

You may request anonymity, though providing contact information helps investigators verify facts. Either way, your loved one is legally protected from retaliation.

How long does an investigation take?

Immediate jeopardy cases often produce findings within a few weeks. Others may take several months. The final report is mailed to the complainant and becomes a public record.

Do I need a lawyer before calling?

No. Anyone can file a complaint. However, if litigation is likely, informing your attorney first helps align the legal strategy and ensures evidence gathered by IDPH supports the eventual case.

8. Why Early Action Matters

Timing is everything in these cases. Facilities often overwrite or purge digital records after 30 or 60 days. Security footage can be erased even sooner. The IDPH’s involvement acts like an emergency freeze—their subpoena power compels the facility to preserve evidence that a private family could never access alone.

9. The Broader Impact

Every IDPH complaint also helps protect others. When investigators find systemic problems—understaffing, poor supervision, faulty equipment—they notify the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which maintains the Nursing Home Compare database. Facilities with repeated serious citations lose their “five-star” ratings and may face federal penalties. That transparency pressures ownership groups to improve care across all their facilities.

In other words, calling the IDPH not only helps your loved one; it also helps the next family who walks through those doors.

10. How We Work With Families

At our firm, we often handle the legal side while families file their IDPH complaints. Once the investigation begins, we track the file, obtain the final report, and use it to investigate the legal claim.

In many cases, the IDPH’s own words describe exactly what the jury will need to understand: that the nursing staff failed to act, that the harm was preventable, and that better supervision could have saved a life or a mind.

11. Key Takeaways

Call the IDPH immediately when you suspect neglect or unsafe conditions.

The investigation is independent and often faster than a lawsuit.

Findings strengthen your legal case by documenting breaches of care, the names of people involved  at the facility, and their narrative of what happened.

There is no downside—the law protects residents from retaliation. There’s no cost to you for asking for an investigation. 

Early action preserves evidence.

Final Thoughts

When a loved one suffers in a nursing home, it’s natural to feel powerless. But one phone call can shift the balance of power back toward the family.

In the case above, an early investigation confirmed the truth of what happened. It got the people involved on record. It’s the first step in getting the proof for a successful case.