According to a state report that came out this morning, blame for the coronavirus outbreak at the veterans home in LaSalle belongs to the home’s administration and the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. Not enough training, complacency, and a lack of a plan are blamed for the outbreak that took 36 residents’ lives
The Department of Human Services Office of the Inspector General report says staff were critical of former veterans home director Angela Mehlbrech. Employees said she stayed in her office and didn’t meet with nurses. Department supervisors were also criticized for not following infection prevention procedures. Overall, the report says there was plenty of time to develop a coronavirus plan before the outbreak, but there was no plan when the outbreak started.
The report says the home avoided infections from March to October last year, but didn’t capitalize on the success. It says a quarantine rule was relaxed. Sometime during the summer, veterans who left the home for medical care at a local hospital were no longer quarantined for 14 days after an assessment that they were at low risk of COVID-19 infection.
And the report says former IDVA director Linda Chapa LaVia wasn’t a hands-on day-to-day leader either. It says the IDVA didn’t have a management structure that provided good supervision, in part because of a job vacancy that lasted two years. The report says IDVA failed to take lessons from COVID-19 cases at the Manteno veterans home and should have at least updated its communication and operations practices to prevent outbreaks at three other veterans homes.
IDVA says it has been working on the necessary updates in training, communication, and hiring qualified people since acting director Terry Prince took over on April 1. Also, there’s an update on when the veterans home must contact the Illinois Department of Public Health to ask for help. Some people, including St. Sen. Sue Rezin, have criticized IDPH for not making an on-site visit for more than ten days after the outbreak began. The report doesn’t fault IDPH and says the veterans home’s administration didn’t ask for such help.
The IDHS report is available at this link.