What Led to 28 Deaths at LaSalle Veterans' Home?
28 residents of the LaSalle Veterans’ Home have died of COVID-19 since November 1, leading to accusations, investigations, and obfuscations about the cause of the outbreak.
As cases of the coronavirus spiked around the state, it wasn’t much of a surprise a couple of cases infected residents and staff of the LaSalle Veterans’ Home, the state-run facility about an hour north of Bloomington.
By the time investigators inspected the facility 11 days later, four cases ballooned to 82 residents and 89 staff with 10 deaths.
By the end of November, 28 veterans were dead, 106 residents had been infected, as well as 96 staff. Almost every one of the roughly 120 residents fell ill, and around ¼ of the residents died. Community leaders and public officials have been left dismayed by the developments.
“It’s shocking,” said State Senator Sue Rezin (R-Morris), who represents LaSalle County and the facility. “This has been a breakdown in management at the home that I can see at this point.”
The inspection conducted after the outbreak began showed numerous breakdowns in safety procedures at the facility. The inspection found the facility wasn’t using alcohol-based hand sanitizer in patient rooms, instead using a formula that wasn’t effective in killing the virus.
Proper masks weren’t being worn in the facility, according to the report, and staff were only being tested once a week. Furthermore, proper screening and temperature checks weren’t taking place when staff came in the building.
Rezin says she believes the Pritzker administration is blaming the community instead of assessing the cause of the dramatic spread within the home.
“They just brushed it off and said positivity rates are increasing in LaSalle County and that’s why you have an outbreak in these homes,” she said.
In a hearing before the Senate Veterans Affairs committee last week, agency Director Linda Chapa LaVia, a former State Representative, did blame the community spread for issues inside the facility.
“It is no coincidence that cases within the home began to rise just as cases rose dramatically in the surrounding community,” she said.
LaVia said it would be difficult to keep the virus out of the facility.
“The people who care for our heroes in the homes live within the communities they serve. They buy groceries there. They have kids. They may have partners in outside workplaces, too. But, when community spread of this virus is high, staff can fall prey to infection no matter how conscientious they have been about following protocols,” she said. “We all know people that, despite their best efforts to follow guidelines, contracted COVID-19. It is terrifying for anybody to wait for COVID test results, but particularly for those who care for our most vulnerable across the state.”
Asked Monday about the outbreak and deaths at the facility, Governor JB Pritzker says he’s hopeful an Inspector General’s investigation shows what breakdowns in the system may have taken place.
“This is a Veterans home that’s in a community that’s got a very high positivity rate. It’s deeply concerning some of the reports that we hear, the rumors out there, about staff people and whether they handled this properly or whether there was anybody in a supervisory position who may have known about any failures to follow procedures,” Pritzker said. “That’s all deeply concerning. I think we’ll have to make some broader determinations after we do an investigation here.”
Rezin says she has received tips and reports from employees in the facility outlining failures to protect patients and staff.
“I’m hearing from all of the employees and constituents and people very close to the situation about breaches that they saw in the protocol that they feel could have caused this massive outbreak in a short amount of time,” she said.
That includes accusations that employees were forced to remain at work even after testing positive for COVID-19.
IDVA Chief of Staff Tony Kolbeck says there were 5 employees who worked with positive tests, but they were working with patients already positive for COVID-19.
“In general, it was notification late at night,” he said. “They’re the only person there for that position. If they went home, it would create another issue and they volunteered to stay.”
A consultant for the Illinois Department of Public Health says rapid tests have been implemented since the outbreak to help give employees immediate feedback as to whether they can begin their shift.
“If there’s any failure of procedure or wrongdoing, then that should be brought to the forefront and people should be held accountable,” Pritzker said.
When cases of Legionnaire’s Disease struck the Quincy Veterans’ Home in 2017, then-candidate JB Pritzker relentlessly attacked the Rauner administration for its response to an outbreak. It took three days for the Rauner administration to inspect the facility, compared to 11 days in the most recent LaSalle COVID-19 outbreak.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s never acceptable when we see rampant infection somewhere,” said Pritzker. “Now remember, this virus is virulent. Whenever it gets into a facility like this, and it usually comes in through somebody who is coming in the door, it’s not the people who are there already who are negative. It’s somebody coming in the door and spreading it to someone else and then it spreads to residents.
But Rezin says the Pritzker administration delaying the release of important information and trying to deflect blame for the outbreak.
“I’ve seen this slow-walked,” she said. “If the management made the wrong decisions, ok. Let’s acknowledge them and tell me what you’re doing to change it. I’m frustrated when I get the 30,000 foot talking points from the administration that it’s COVID spread, it’s community spread, and there’s nothing we can do. I don’t accept that.”
The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs did not respond to inquiries from The Illinoize, including an interview request for Chapa LaVia. We have submitted questions in each of Governor JB Pritzker’s virtual COVID-19 update news conferences, but our questions have not been selected by Pritzker’s staff.
UPDATE (10:37 A.M.):
IDVA declined our interview request with Director Chapa LaVia.
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With hundreds of cases the institutional failures aren’t yet clear-cut.
There has been no signal yet that any criminal investigation is underway. LaSalle County State’s Attorney Karen Donnelly was serving her final day in office Monday after being defeated for re-election last month and did not respond to a message seeking comment.
