By Benjamin Cox on May 7, 2021 at 9:59am
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says he wouldn’t have hired a person to run the Illinois Veterans Department if he knew then what he knows now.
The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs released a scathing report on the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home that took the lives of 36 people. Pritzker says new acting director Terry Prince and IDVA have begun taking corrective actions at the facility. Pritzker said he called for the report and investigation at the LaSalle home because he felt that the citizens of the state deserved to know what happened.
Gov. JB Pritzker is under fire from critics after the administration published a long-awaited report examining what led to the massive COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home last fall, which left 36 residents dead.
The investigation, which Pritzker ordered a few weeks into the deadly outbreak in November, found systemic organizational problems and failures to communicate in both the LaSalle Home and the state’s Department of Veteran Affairs, which runs the facility and three other veterans homes in Illinois.
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Along with inconsistent and confusing COVID protocols that led to lax enforcement among staff, the report also found former agency Director Linda Chapa LaVia “abdicated” her responsibilities to her chief of staff, who in essence performed three jobs. The failure to fill crucial vacant jobs inevitably left the chief of staff and other managers in IDVA and at the LaSalle home “with too many responsibilities to effectively lead.”
Report: LaSalle virus crisis response reactive and chaotic
JOHN O CONNOR, AP Political Writer
April 30, 2021
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1of3Terry 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.John O Connor/APShow MoreShow Less
2of3Terry 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.John O Connor/APShow MoreShow Less
By RICK PEARSON | Chicago Tribune | Published: April 30, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. CHICAGO (Tribune News Service) A scathing independent report on last fall’s COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home that led to 36 deaths details systemic mismanagement from the top of the Illinois Veterans Affairs department down to the home’s leadership, which created an “inefficient, reactive and chaotic” response to controlling the virus. The 50-page report from the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General and the law firm of Armstrong Teasdale, released Friday, says then-VA Director Linda Chapa LaVia “abdicated” her responsibilities, leaving things to a nonmedical chief of staff who preferred to let each home manage itself while iss
Watchdog report details mismanagement of COVID-19 outbreak at LaSalle VA home herald-review.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from herald-review.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.