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Quote of the day
Thursday, Apr 13, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller Jim Muir: I found it amazing that Reardon said she sits across her desk from people that she knows are going to die and they know they are going to die before they can get any help. And that is happening right here in the Land of Lincoln. And all the while the beat goes on in Springfield. Go here to see what Jim was writing about. Very troubling indeed.
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- Cassandra - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 8:37 am:
I am sorry about the lady with cancer and I note that according to the article, resources “came out of the woodwork,” after the article was published, suggesting to me that they were always there but somehow the agency couldn’t bring them to bear on her problems.Hopefully, the agency has now been galvanized to do what it should have been doing all along and she is receiving the service.
This looks like management failure and would not necessarily be resolved by hiring more people to fill out forms or answer the phone.
Instead of sitting about enjoying their six-figure patronage jobs, the agency’s managers should be working on ways to ensure that technology and management techniques are developed to so that all applicants receive service with a very short period of time.
Hopefully, the state’s Inspector General will look into this rather serious case of an agency’s failure to perform.
- Gregor - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:01 am:
No, this will not get better on it’s own. What it shows is that things have gotten so bad, that only the most noisy, publicized cases get what should be normal treatment for all. Totally managing rom immediate crisis to crisis, and you can’t keep that kind of thing up indefinitely. I visited a DHS field office, and each case worker’s desk was covered in multiple stacks of file folders so tall, you could NOT see the person at their desk when they sat down. Even more files like that were stacked from floor to desk level for each case worker. Every other desk was vacant, but still had the piles of files. My friend I had come to visit told me each worker was handling 40 cases a day. if each case takes 20 minutes to resolve (and usually they take more) …well, you do the math to see if all 40 get handled in one WEEK, never mind a day. This is what the administration considers to be “cutting waste and doing more with less”.
What they didn’t explain was they considered DHS clients a waste, and are asking sick people with no money to do more for themselves with less help from the state.
Remind me again, who’s name is plastered all over the entrance to these offices? It escapes me…
- Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:14 am:
This is nonsense. Paper pushers behind desks don’t save people, health care workers do. The lack of health insurance is killing people, not the lack of DHS workers, who as often as not have to tell people they are NOT eligible for services, because we don’t have universal health insurance.
Gov. Blagojevich has been expanding coverage every since coming to office. That saves lives. If the money to do this comes out of paper pushers at DHS and elsewhere in state government, all the better. These folks have an attitude that they only have to do XX amount of work per day and if more is asked, forget about it.
- DOWNSTATE - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:27 am:
This is all state agencies as far as people bragging about Blago’s health care policy he is doing it on borrowing the money as soon as the state gets shut off the health care will dry up.I like how these anonymous people get on here with the Blago agenda trying to make state enployees look bad because people are dying.Way to go Blago people.Also where is the money going to come from for this big insurance plan of yours.
- Wheres the leadership??? - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:44 am:
With all the leadership including Agency Directors Top exec and even many first line supervisors based in Chicago, it does not suprise me things “fall between the cracks” because they are doing it in ALL the agencies. This is due to LACK OF LEADERSHIP and because people spend 1 day a week traveling between Chicago and Springfield.
- Papa Legba - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 4:27 pm:
Cassandra - News flash. The agency managers and on up are the patronage putzes making the six figure salaries. So there are very few real workers to do the heavy lifting. I have watched it happen since day one of this administration. The “managers” are too busy playing “West Wing” and making up glowing reports for GRod to brag about.
- anon - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 7:20 pm:
I worked under two republican govs - the same, if not worse, happened then — this isn’t about party politics — it’s about government in general!!