An inspector general’s report on the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs LaSalle Veterans’ Home is a maddening story of incompetence and chaos at every level.
The IG report, released Friday, tells the story of an allegedly AWOL agency director; an in-over-his-head chief of staff; a crucial failure to fill an important upper management position; an unconscionably delayed IDVA management response at all levels to a clearly and rapidly deteriorating situation both in the surrounding communities outside the home and when the virus inevitably spread inside the facility; an unprepared and woefully uninformed management on multiple issues, including basics about personal protection equipment; an abject failure to properly train and equip staff; multiple failures to ask for outside help and accept it when offered; and staff infighting and managerial timidity.
Investigation into COVID deaths at the LaSalle Veterans Home shows response was reactive and chaotic
An investigation found that inconsistent policies in dealing with COVID infections and deaths at the LaSalle Veterans Home caused chaos at the facility.
Credit: AP
Terry Prince, Gov. J.B. Pritzker s designee as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, discusses changes in administration, communication, policies and infection control that he and others at the agency are implementing in response to a COVID-19 outbreak last fall at the LaSalle Veterans Home. (AP Photo/John O Connor) Author: Associated Press Updated: 9:15 PM CDT April 30, 2021
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) An investigative report by an Illinois inspector general found a chain of miscommunication, lax policy and missed opportunities leading up to and during a COVID-19 outbreak last fall at the LaSalle Veterans Home.
A state watchdog report into the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home found multiple failures that contributed to 36 veterans deaths, stemming primarily from the home’s complete lack of infection prevention plans or policies.
The report also found deficiencies in communication and staff training at the LaSalle home, as well as repeated lack of compliance with personal protective equipment protocols.
The LaSalle home, one of four state-run veterans homes, had no documented COVID-19 specific policies or outbreak plan, despite the well-known risks of coronavirus transmission in places like long-term care facilities, according to the report from the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General.
Terry Prince, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s designee as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, discusses changes in administration, communication, policies and infection control that he and others at the agency are implementing in response to a COVID-19 outbreak last fall at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home. (AP Photo/John O’Connor)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) Consistent statewide procedures and ongoing drills that target infection response and other emergencies will be routine at Illinois veterans’ homes after COVID-19 caught the LaSalle Veterans’ Home unprepared and claimed 36 lives last fall, the state’s newly appointed director said.
Terry Prince, a 31-year Navy veteran and former senior adviser to the U.S. Surgeon General, has issued a six-point plan for improving readiness at the state’s veterans’ homes in Anna, Manteno, Quincy and LaSalle. The plan follows a blistering investigative report that laid out a string of miscommunications, lax policy and missed
Organizational failures
The COVID outbreak at LaSalle, and smaller outbreaks at the IDVA’s homes in Manteno and Quincy, present a challenge to Pritzker. In 2018, he waged a campaign against former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner partially on the message that the venture capitalist-turned-politician failed in his handling of the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the Quincy facility in 2015, which killed 13 residents and sickened many more.
Within days of being sworn in, Pritzker requested a “complete review of the health, safety, and security process,” at the state’s four veterans’ homes via executive order. The resulting external audit made nearly two-dozen suggestions for improving health and safety at the facilities. But according to Friday’s report, many recommended fixes, including updating and standardizing infection control policies across the four homes, were never made.