By Taylor Fleming
PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – A Peoria senior living facility is being fined thousands of dollars by the state after a resident choked and died last year.
The Illinois Department of Public Health released their first Quarterly Report of 2026, which lays out the facilities that have violated the Nursing Home Care Act.
Several Central Illinois care centers are being fined, including one where a fatal choking happened.
At Sharon Health Care Elms, located on N. Rochelle in Peoria, a resident died on October 15 after choking on food. The IDPH found that “the facility failed to ensure that a resident received adequate supervision and dietary management to prevent a choking incident.”
The skilled nursing facility is being fined $25,000 by the IDPH because of the incident. The IDPH uses the money they get with fines to monitor long-term care facilities and safeguard patients whether or not owners are cooperative.
A family member brought the Elms resident food weekly, but alleged to state investigators that they were never informed by nursing home staff that bringing outside food could endanger the resident.
On October 15, the family member brought the resident a sandwich. After eating it, he choked and died, despite life-saving efforts by staff.
25 News reached out to Sharon Health Care leadership via email, and received no response.
In medical notes available in public documents, nurses claimed the family member was aware that the resident was on a soft foods diet. The state did not find any documentation that family members were told about the resident’s diet, and it was not in the resident’s care plan.
Other senior living facilities were fined for lesser violations this quarter, including The Loft Rehab of Peoria, Sharon Health Care Willows, Sunset Rehabilitation & Health Care in Canton, Acadia Care Bloomington, Loft Rehab & Nursing of Normal, and Arcadia Care Morton.
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