Governor Bruce Rauner has named a new senior advisor to oversee the state’s response to the multiple outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease at a state-run veterans’ home.
In a statement, the Rauner administration is now saying there’s a ‘health crisis’ at the veterans’ home in Quincy.
Rauner named Michael Hoffman to oversee the state’s response. Hoffman has led the state agency called Central Management Services, and is a retired Marine.
Rauner’s announcement comes as four more residents of the veterans’ home recently tested positive for Legionnaires’ disease, after outbreaks there in 2015, 16, and 2017. And a special committee of legislators is scheduled to meet Monday into why administrators didn’t act on a 2016 report that addresses the plumbing at the facility.