Rep. Randy Frese | File photo
Rep. Randy Frese | File photo
Republican state Rep. Randy Frese (R-Quincy) doesn’t mince words about what he thinks about the LaSalle Veterans' Home COVID-19 tragedy, and he still struggles with how it came to be.
“Inefficient, reactive and chaotic that's how the [Illinois Department of Healh] Inspector General described the LaSalle Veterans' Home management's response to a COVID-19 outbreak last fall that resulted in the loss of 36 lives and hundreds of positive cases among both residents and staff,” Frese said during a recent news conference. “The report also says this disaster should and perhaps could have been prevented.”
Frese pointed to a May 2019 health and safety audit of the Illinois Veterans Home policy procedures that found serious problems, including that “policies were inconsistent between the homes, several were incomplete and outdated, and very importantly, while infection control policies existed, they were not clear how they were integrated into an infection control management program.”
“The director of [Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs] was told about the need to develop standardized protocols and to ensure that the policies were updated annually,” he said. “None of this was done. This leaves a person heartbroken. It leaves me frustrated and quite angry.”
While the report reserves some of the harshest criticism for Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including accusations he appointed then-VA Director Linda Chapa LaVia but allowed her to abdicate her responsibilities to a non-medical chief of staff, Frese is most focused on making certain nothing like it happens again.
"On Nov. 10 of last year, I and other Republicans on the Veterans' Affairs committee sent a letter to chairperson Kifowit asking to convene an immediate hearing of the Illinois House Veterans' Affairs committee to investigate the COVID 19 deaths in frightening numbers at Illinois veteran homes,” he said. “It took a month to get a response and a hearing. No meaningful action was taken. This scathing report reinforces our need for immediate hearings.”
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