* July 27, 2016…
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner stopped by the Illinois Veterans’ Home Wednesday morning, a day after the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs announced two veterans had been diagnosed with Legionnaire’s disease.
The governor was there for a tour of the recently-completed water facility. The state completed the extensive $5 million renovation of the water system this year after 12 people died and 54 were sickened last summer as a result of the disease. Dozens of others were sickened. But health officials never found a source for the outbreak.
“We cannot let it happen again,” Rauner said.
* August 12, 2016…
State officials have confirmed a third new case of Legionnaires’ disease at a western Illinois veterans’ home since an outbreak there last year killed 12 people and sickened 54.
* September 20, 2016…
State officials are looking into more than a dozen cases of respiratory illness at a LaSalle Veterans’ Home.
Eleven residents tested positive with pneumonia over the past several months. One of the residents also tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease. A spokesperson for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs says the 97-year-old resident had multiple underlying issues and has since died.
A week and a half later, the IDPH chief of staff took a leave of absence to work campaigns.
* AP…
While the Department of Public Health faced the baffling return of Legionnaires’ disease at a state-run veterans home in 2016, a top administrator left to work on Republican campaigns for the Illinois House, records reviewed by The Associated Press show.
Erik Rayman, the chief of staff to Public Health Director Dr. Nirav Shah, took a leave of absence in October and November 2016, just two months after the return of the deadly disease at the Quincy veterans home that claimed 12 lives the previous summer and another last fall. Four new cases were reported last month. […]
State Sen. Tom Cullerton, a Villa Park Democrat and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, criticized the move.
“Why is the chief of staff doing campaign work?” Cullerton asked.
“I understand that people come out of different offices and take leaves of absences, but it’s never a chief of staff,” he said. “With everything going on in Public Health, the chief of staff is the most important person in that department.”
* AP follow-up…
Gov. Bruce Rauner is unconcerned that his Public Health Department’s chief of staff took a 2016 leave of absence for political campaigning while the Quincy veterans home battled Legionnaires’ disease.
The Republican told reporters in East Peoria Wednesday that the home recorded no Legionnaires’ cases during Erik Rayman’s absence. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Rayman took unpaid leave in October and November 2016 to work on Republican House campaigns.
Rauner said that at the time, “There hadn’t been any cases in quite a while.”
* Meanwhile, from the Pritzker campaign…
A day after Bruce Rauner declared “we in Illinois must strive every day to make it Veterans Day,” his Department of Public Health announced late on Friday that two dozen residents and staff at the Quincy Veterans’ Home had fallen ill with what they suspect is norovirus.
The announcement came in the form of a Friday news dump press release, a step above the administration’s “mind-boggling” and “inexcusable” six-day delay in announcing the Legionnaires’ outbreak in 2015. Under Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership, the Quincy Veterans’ Home continues to be plagued with health issues — from recurring fatal outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease to the potential norovirus reported last week.
“With Bruce Rauner still failing to get the Legionnaires’ crisis under control, new health issues are now coming to light at the Quincy Veterans’ Home,” said Pritzker campaign spokesman Jason Rubin. “The lives of our nation’s heroes continue to be jeopardized by staggering incompetence at the highest levels of Bruce Rauner’s administration.”
*** UPDATE *** IDPH…
Erik Rayman was on a leave of absence from October 3 - November 30, 2016. During this time, IDPH continued to operate with a director, assistant director, and chief of staff. The previous IDPH assistant director, Michelle Gentry-Wiseman, served as the acting the Chief of Staff. Ms. Gentry-Wiseman was with IDPH from 1990-2003 in various roles, including serving as the first Chief of Staff at IDPH. Ms. Gentry-Wiseman returned to IDPH in March 2015 as the assistant director and served until she retired from public service in June 2016. She was well versed and involved with IDPH’s response to the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Quincy. For a week prior to his leave of absence, Mr. Rayman overlapped with Ms. Gentry-Wiseman to ensure a continuity of operations.
Please remember that IDPH’s role is a technical advisor, working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Adams County Health Department to advise the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Illinois Veterans’ Home at Quincy on infection control procedures and water remediation efforts the facility should be taking. .
Melaney Arnold
Illinois Department of Public Health
Public Information Officer
* Related…
* Vietnam War veterans honored in Springfield: “How many governors do you know have actually gone to live at a veterans’ home,” [Veterans Affairs’ director Erica Jeffries] said, referring to Rauner’s one-week stay earlier this year at the veterans home in Quincy, which has seen several cases of Legionnaires’ disease. “Why did he go there? Because he wanted to be able to get to know those men and women who served our country. He wanted to get to know our staff who care for those veterans every single day. He does that in his walk as governor, and as a private citizen, every day.”
* Federal budget bill could benefit Illinois Veterans Home: U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth said the omnibus budget bill passed by Congress last week includes more than $500 million for “construction at state-run veteran health facilities” such as the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy.
