The AARP of Illinois has joined a growing chorus of state lawmakers who have called for public hearings into the operation and oversight of Illinois’ long-term care facilities after revelations that more than 270 allegations of abuse and neglect were not investigated during the first three months of the state’s COVID-19 shutdown.
On Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced an outside firm and a former U.S. Attorney were reviewing those lapses in oversight of allegations of abuse and neglect that were not investigated.
“IDPH has now conducted complaint investigations for 272 allegations of abuse and neglect that had been received between March 15 and June 30,” the department said Friday. “As a result of those investigations, IDPH was able to substantiate the factual circumstances of 17 of those complaints.”
AARP of Illinois State Director Bob Gallo said the organization is concerned about the failure to investigate complaints in a timely manner as required by state law.
“We’ve heard from many individuals who keep saying, ‘I call the nursing home but I don’t get any answers,’” Gallo said. “Some of these violations are things like beds that are horribly painful, cause sepsis infections and lead to death, or bedbugs that exist at some of these homes that aren’t being eradicated.”
He said Illinois’ nursing homes have for years been among the worst run and the pandemic shows just how unprepared the operators and state regulators have been.
Gallo said there’s no reason legislative hearings can’t coincide with any other investigation to hold operators and state regulators accountable.
“That can be done by calling administrators in front of elected officials, in front of a committee, and get answers to those questions now,” Gallo said.
Messages seeking comment from the chairs of the House and Senate Human Services Committees were not returned.
State Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, told WMAY it is time for public hearings.
“We should have had hearings when 25 people at the Villas in Sherman passed away because of COVID in a few weeks time,” Butler said. “That was several months ago.”
Butler said there seems to be a double standard. He said Democrats went after a former Republican governor hard for a legionnaires disease outbreak over several years that killed more than a dozen people and infected scores more.
Of the 7,917 people in Illinois who have died from COVID-19, more than half, or 4,319, were from long-term care facilities.
