A Lack Of Fairness

No one else will do it…so I will.

Aperion Care Fairfield was in the news this week….and they were treated in an unfair way. The local post-acute rehabilitation and long term care facility located next to our hospital got railroaded and I am not going to let it slide.

A law firm issued a press release in northern Illinois pointing out the corporate owners of the Fairfield facility had been fined extensively by the state department of public health during the fourth quarter of last year. We got the release from the law firm at the radio station over the weekend.

The difference between the way we handled it….and they way it was handled elsewhere is rather predictable. We researched the release and determined there were no fines lodged against Aperion Care Fairfield….so we did not do a story. The fines were for Aperion facilities elsewhere.

It made the front page downtown…almost word-for-word from the release from the law firm. The implication was that the fines were levied for the escape of two residents….and another person who died less than an hour after surgery.

None of those things happened here….but the story didn’t tell you that and the good folks who work at the Fairfield facility were left to fend off the negative publicity.

This kind of reporting…or lack of reporting…is cringe-worthy.