Dupage Policy Journal

As Republicans continued to raise questions regarding the 36 COVID-19-related deaths at the LaSalle Veterans' Home last fall, Peter Neumer, Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) Office of the Inspector General (OIG), recently spoke to the state Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Neumer appeared before the committee to discuss the April 26 report his department created about the veterans' home outbreak. State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) questioned Neumer regarding the coronavirus outbreak and whether it could have been prevented.

“Do you believe that if these recommendations had been in place, such as a timeline for an immediate onsite visit, that we would have slowed the spread of COVID throughout the entire LaSalle Veterans' Home?” Rezin asked Neumer during the hearing.

Neumer said that it would be difficult to answer Rezin’s question but that if the measures had been in place, he did think the outcome would have been better. He also acknowledged that some of the errors at LaSalle mirrored problems that contributed to an outbreak of Legionnaires Disease at the Quincy Veterans' Home.

“I would say that our recommendations have some similarities to the Tetra Tech audit in 2019 — obviously the Tetra Tech audit had a sort of 30-or-50,000-foot view, and we've got much more into the weeds — particularly at the LaSalle home — but I do think you see similarities between the findings there about the need for uniformity amongst the homes, about a uniformity throughout [Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs] and infection control practices, so that is why I think there are similarities there,” Neumer said.

The report, which has been dubbed “scathing” by some news outlets, points to various failures to implement procedures or take proper precautions as negatively influencing the outbreak. Rezin also questioned why the Illinois Department of Public Health and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration received so little attention in the report.

“In your report, you mentioned the governor and the governor's office 13 times,” Rezin said to Neumer. “Only two that we have found seem to be substantive pieces of information … can you speak to why there are so few mentions between all of the departments that should have been coordinating throughout this outbreak?”

Neumer said that the primary focus had been on the operation of the LaSalle facility itself, though the report made recommendations regarding the point when other agencies should get involved.