SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - An audit has criticized the state's response to the Legionnaires' disease outbreak at the Quincy veterans' home that caused 13 deaths.
Auditor General Frank Mautino's report found fault with a six-day delay between confirmation of a second case of Legionnaires' at Quincy in August 2015 and specific instructions to nursing staff to protect residents.
He recommended that the Illinois Departments of Veterans' Affairs and Public Health develop strict procedures for notification, patient monitoring and more. The agencies generally agreed with the findings.
The audit blamed the deadly flu-like outbreak on water that sat unused in a boiler and was insufficiently heated before released.
Mautino found that 66 Quincy residents and eight employees contracted Legionnaires', including the 13 deaths. Former Gov. Bruce Rauner decided to rebuild the campus.
But the audit also contradicts former Gov. Bruce Rauner's claim that his administration had done everything federal experts had recommended to remedy the 2015 Legionnaires' disease crisis at the veterans' home.
The Auditor General reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in December 2015 that filters be put on every water spigot. Despite Rauner's claim, the audit found that only shower and bathtub heads were outfitted before 2018.
Auditor General Mautino is a former Democratic State Representative. First term Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker has said the families of those veterans who died in the Legionnaires disease crisis should be compensated. But also has said it is not within his adminstrative purview to make a decision on such specifics.