Tuesday, June 11

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Ryan to close LDC;
union says set up to fail

[JUNE 11, 2002]  Local AFSCME officials said they were saddened, but not particularly surprised, by Gov. George Ryan’s Monday morning announcement that he is closing the 125-year-old Lincoln Developmental Center.

Ryan said in a press release yesterday that the latest finding of four incidents of neglect in four days was "the last straw," and he must close the troubled facility for the safety of the residents. Local union officials, however, charge that LDC was "set up" to fail because of the state’s budget crisis.

Closing LDC has been a priority for the Department of Human Services, the state agency that oversees the facility that cares for individuals with developmental disabilities, for some time, and the latest citations were part of the plan, they say. Also, closing LDC may be just the beginning.

"As soon as I heard last week that Public Health had put us in immediate jeopardy, I knew what DHS was up to," said Don Todd, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 425, the union that represents LDC employees.

 


[Photos by Joan Crabb]
[Don Todd]

"With this governor and this Department of Human Services, I think this was in the back of their minds all along.

"I think for a long time the DHS and the state have been trying to get out of the business of taking care of those with developmental disabilities," Todd added. "In the long run, it’s just a plan to downsize and close developmental facilities throughout the state."

"It’s the tip of the iceberg," Dan Senters, AFSCME spokesman, added. "Taking care of people with developmental disabilities is too costly. That’s the bottom line. Their long-range objective is to close all 11 facilities."

 


[AFSCME spokesman and former LDC employee Dan Senters]

Last week the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Office of the Inspector General, the OIG, announced that LDC was in "immediate jeopardy" because of two incidents of neglect — allegations that residents were left unsupervised and their health and safety jeopardized. A press release issued by the governor’s office [see "Safety concerns force closure of Lincoln Developmental Center"] cited two more cases, making four separate incidents in four days where staff failed to properly supervise residents.

The press release also said the governor would completely close LDC, Logan County’s largest employer, beginning on July 1, the start of the state’s new fiscal year.

The governor began downsizing the facility last fall, and in February he announced a plan to reduce the number of residents to 100 and the number of employees to about 210. However, a suit filed in March by AFSCME, parents of an LDC resident and Sen. Larry Bomke of Springfield froze the number of residents to about 240 and also halted massive layoffs of employees.

 

The four recent citations were minor infractions that would not ordinarily have been investigated, Senters said.

"These are minor allegations, the kinds of things that happen all the time in this field. There have been other incidents more serious than these, where Public Health and OIG were notified and they declined to investigate. They didn’t see any basis to it," Senters said.

In one of the incidents, he said, "One resident made a right turn and the others made a left turn. The tech [staff member] went after him but he was out of sight for a few minutes. He was just unsupervised for a short period of time.

"These are the kinds of things that happen all the time with people with developmental disabilities. That’s why they need our services."

Senters said no residents were hurt in any of the four incidents.

"They are making these issues very important because they want to close Lincoln," he added. Incidents at some of the other 11 state-operated facilities have been much more serious, he said.

 

[to top of second column in this article]

"For example, Howe Developmental Center, in Tinley Park, has had a resident missing for a year. They still haven’t found him, but Howe is not getting the same sort of attention that LDC has had."

Todd pointed out that in 1966, the Lincoln Developmental Center was the first in the state to receive accreditation by the National Accreditation Council, a new agency that looks at facilities both in the United States and abroad. He said the problems at LDC that led to the governor’s decision to downsize, and now close, the facility began in 1999, when DHS removed former superintendent Marty Downs.

"They removed a superintendent that was well-liked and did a good job and put in someone who had no experience with individuals with developmental disabilities. Then they didn’t support her when she was here."

 

If LDC closes, he said, its residents there will be sent to other state-run facilities, and some residents at the other facilities will probably be put into group homes in the community. Most of those now at LDC are not good candidates for community placement because they have such severe disabilities, he said.

He also pointed out that in spite of all the charges of abuse and neglect brought against the Lincoln facility since early last fall, the parents of the residents have supported the present system.

"They’ve been with us all the way. They’ve stood behind us, saying we gave their loved ones quality care. The governor’s plan was wrong from the beginning. The parents knew it and we knew it."

Todd was also angry at the governor and DHS for blaming the failure of LDC on the AFSCME lawsuit. According to a letter from Linda Renee Baker, secretary of DHS, the lawsuit has prevented DHS from making reforms needed to assure the health and safety of the residents.

Baker’s letter, quoted in the governor’s press release, said, "Without the ability to implement the reform plan we outlined to the federal government, we contemplate that deficiencies at this facility will continue."

"For the governor to come out and say our lawsuit is the reason LDC is closing is an outright lie," Todd said.

Senters said layoffs of employees have hurt the operation of LDC, which presently has 244 residents and about 506 employees.

"It looks like we have a 2-to-1 ratio, but only 210 of those employees are technicians, people who give direct care to the residents," he said. The others are nurses, doctors, management people, truck drivers, grounds crews, housekeeping and dietary workers.

Todd said the General Assembly, which was called into special session this week to deal with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall, can still save LDC.

"It’s in the hands of the legislators now. They can refuse to support his plan and override his veto. The General Assembly can turn this around if they have the courage to stand up for what’s right," he said.

"I believe the legislators we have in this district who have fought for us all the way, Representatives Bill Mitchell and Jonathan Wright and Senator Larry Bomke, have demonstrated that courage."

The Senate may vote today on whether to override Ryan’s decision to close LDC, Senters said. However, the override will take a three-fifths majority. If the Senate does not override Ryan’s decision, the issue will not get to the House of Representatives, he said.

[Joan Crabb]

 


Mitchell upset by LDC funding veto

[JUNE 11, 2002]  SPRINGFIELD — State Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, is concerned about the future of the Lincoln Developmental Center. Gov. Ryan used his line-item veto power in an attempt to eliminate all funding for the facility. The veto could wipe out the $35 million, which was part of the budget passed by the General Assembly earlier this month. This would force the facility to close and would eliminate hundreds of jobs in Logan County.

"I am very upset about the governor’s action," said Mitchell. "If the House and Senate do not override his veto, hundreds of people will lose their jobs, and hundreds of LDC residents will not receive the care that they need."

The governor’s veto will first be considered by the Senate. If three-fifths of the senators vote to override it, it will be considered by the House.

"I spoke with senators from this area about LDC and encouraged them to work for an override," said Mitchell. "Hopefully the Senate will act responsibly and save this important facility."

The General Assembly is currently in a special session in Springfield to consider the governor’s vetoes.

[News release]


LDC residents get loving care

[JUNE 11, 2002]  "I’d like for Governor Ryan to come to LDC for one day and work with me," said Sandy Robertson, a Technician II at Lincoln Developmental Center.

Then the governor, who announced Monday that he will close the state-run facility on July 1, would see how well residents are treated and how much they love the place that, for many, has always been home.

Staff members called technicians, who work directly with the patients, become verys attached to the people they work with, she says.

"It’s true you spend more time with them than with your family. They are your second family."

Sandy, who was slated to be laid off June 30 under Ryan’s former downsizing plan and who will be unemployed if LDC closes, finds her job very rewarding.

"It’s not an everyday job, sitting at a desk. In my job, I make a difference in somebody’s life. Just because people have disabilities doesn’t mean they don’t have goals."

 


[Photo by Joan Crabb]
[Sandy Robertson]

She says the saddest part of the LDC closure is taking the residents away from their homes.

"When you experience an individual in a hallway kicking and screaming because he doesn’t want to leave, it just tears your heart out." This was the reaction of many residents who were moved out last fall when the governor and the Department of Human Services began downsizing the center, she said.

"It makes me think Governor Ryan is really inhumane, because he is taking them away from what has been their home. That’s all these individuals know. That’s home."

Ryan has said he is closing LDC because repeated investigations have shown that patients are not getting proper care and their health and safety is jeopardized. Many LDC workers, however, believe the closure is a financial issue, a way to cut the state budget.

"You can’t tell me the staff at LDC doesn’t care about the individuals they work with," Sandy said. "Staff members buy things for residents using their own money.

 

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"For instance, I have an individual who doesn’t like to eat. It’s been a lifelong problem. So if he eats, I’ll get him something — a treat like a Coke or chips after he eats his dinner.

Staff members buy little things like cologne, cigarettes and hair-care products for the residents, she said, and many of them add to the $40 each resident gets for Christmas presents.

"These may be little things, but they mean a lot to the residents," she said.

Sandy also said she believes LDC has been targeted for closure.

"They have been shifting us [technicians] around arbitrarily since October. Some of us are caring for people we have not been trained to care for."

 

Some of the residents she sometimes has in her care are the medically fragile who were moved from the second floor of Coty Cottage and who may have tracheotomies, catheters, feeding tubes or be on oxygen. She said she has had no training at LDC or at any time previously to know what these residents might need.

Several former Coty residents died after they were moved out of the cottage, and AFSCME officials said the deaths occurred at least in part because they had been moved from a protected situation and no longer had caregivers who understood their medical needs.

Although there are not a lot of jobs in her hometown of Mason City, Sandy says she doesn’t want to work in a group home for the developmentally disabled that is in the area.

"They don’t have the staffing they have in Lincoln. The pay is low — $7 or $8 an hour — and there is a lot of turnover. People don’t get the consistency of care and the level of service in group homes that they do at LDC."

[Joan Crabb]


Safety concerns force closure
of Lincoln Developmental Center

[JUNE 11, 2002]  SPRINGFIELD — Gov. George Ryan announced Monday that the process of closing the troubled Lincoln Developmental Center will begin on July 1 because of new alleged incidents of improper supervision which indicate to developmental disability professionals that “health and safety issues remain” at the LDC campus.

The Department of Human Services inspector general is investigating four separate incidents in four days where staff failed to provide proper supervision to residents, placing people at imminent risk of injury. The new investigations come despite the fact that the facility’s staffing levels are among the highest ratios at state-run facilities for the developmentally disabled.

Staff professionals at DHS told the governor in a letter last week that an ongoing lawsuit by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has “thwarted” efforts by DHS to initiate reforms and help LDC keep its federal certification.

“This is a very difficult decision because it is going to disrupt the lives of many people who call LDC home, as well as their families. But I have no choice,” Ryan said. “These new incidents are the last straw. I want to make it clear that my decision was not influenced by the state’s revenue shortfall but out of concern for the health and safety of residents at the Lincoln Developmental Center.”

The Lincoln Developmental Center was given until July to come into compliance with federal standards under an agreement reached by DHS, the Department of Public Aid and the Department of Public Health, which act as regulators for the federal government.

 


[Photos by Bob Frank]
[Lincoln Developmental Center]

The inability to implement the plan had put the facility at risk of failing a survey scheduled for July, which in turn would cause the facility to lose federal funding.

“We’ve tried to implement reforms at LDC for some time, but our efforts have been undermined by AFSCME and the staff at LDC,” Ryan added.

Last week Human Services Secretary Linda Renee Baker and DHS professional staff recommended to the governor that LDC be closed because the lawsuit filed by AFSCME prevented the implementation of the reform plan, as well as the new incidents of resident neglect.

 

“The latest allegations of neglect of two residents at LDC are deeply troubling to me,” Baker said in a letter to the governor. “Based on the professional judgement of my staff, it is now my opinion that without the ability to implement your Reform Plan, we cannot operate LDC in a manner that ensures the health and safety of the residents and the facility must close.”

Baker added that the projected timeline of the ongoing AFSCME litigation will run beyond the end of June.

“Accordingly, our reform plan calling for a resurvey with a population of 100 has been thwarted,” Baker said. “Without the ability to implement the reform plan we outlined to the federal government, we contemplate that deficiencies at this facility will continue.”

Baker added that the AFSCME litigation has resulted in “continued uncertainty” at LDC and “higher than usual absenteeism rates among staff,” as well as overtime, double shifts and a reliance on administrative staff to do day-to-day tasks instead of initiating reforms that would help the facility stay certified.

 

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“…we regretfully conclude that the continuing litigation has prevented this facility from making any significant progress toward the objectives you outlined in your reform plan. The most recent incidents appear to indicate that health and safety issues remain,” Baker wrote.

A timeline and procedure for transferring LDC residents and dealing with employees and facility property will be outlined at a later date.

 


[Is this the fate of LDC?]

Despite court orders that have frozen the LDC staffing ratio at approximately 2.13-to-1, monitoring reports in April and May continued to identify significant substandard performance in the care and treatment provided to the people who live at LDC.

On June 4, two incidents involving a lack of proper supervision were reported to DPH and the DHS inspector general.

In one incident an individual was left unsupervised and wandered away from his home without the knowledge of staff. The second incident involved an individual who was left unsupervised long enough to engage in self-abusive behavior, which had the potential for very serious injury. After initiating an investigation into the two incidents on June 7, DPH cited an “Immediate Jeopardy” at LDC. Also on June 7, a third and fourth incident involving breaches in supervision were reported.

The third incident involved an individual who was left alone in his home after everyone else had left the building for the morning. The fourth incident involved an individual with pica behavior who was forgotten at her day program site when the rest of her group returned home. A housekeeper found her alone in a bathroom.

“These latest incidents are indicative of the historical situation at LDC and will no longer be tolerated,” the governor added.

In October of 2001, the governor implemented a plan to downsize LDC by 90 people in response to LDC being cited on four of eight conditions related to the safety of residents and the quality of care they receive. He ordered 30-day reviews in order to assess LDC’s progress in correcting its problems.

In December, following the second review, Ryan visited LDC and, based on continued problems at the facility, ordered further downsizing.

 

In January of 2002, the governor directed DHS to provide him with a plan for either further downsizing or closure of the facility.

After listening to the families of LDC residents, Ryan announced in February that the facility would be downsized to 100 residents. This plan to downsize laid the groundwork for a negotiated agreement that would afford LDC the opportunity to stay open as a certified 100-bed facility if it passed a final survey set for July. However, later that month AFSCME filed a lawsuit to block the movement of residents out of LDC. In April, a Logan County Circuit Court ordered a preliminary injunction halting the planned downsizing.

[Illinois Government News Network
press release]


Articles from the past week

Monday:

  • LDC citations are ‘suspect,’ AFSCME spokesman says

  • Circuit clerk improves service with technology

Saturday:

  • Crime Stoppers donates funds for new ERT vests

  • Teachers retiring in Lincoln area

  • Department of Public Health cites LDC

  • Mount Pulaski death under investigation

  • Illinois Senate week in review

  • Senate prescription drug plan awaits action by the governor

Friday:

  • Logan-Mason Rehabilitation Center helps the disabled meet their goals  (Part 2)

  • Wednesday seminar focuses on assisting domestic violence victims in the workplace

Thursday:

  • Gov. Ryan commends legislative action on Lincoln Presidential Library

Wednesday:

  • First sewer bids in under cost

  • Cool, wet spring

Tuesday:

  • Earlier Sunday drinking issue brings controversy to council

  • City to hire one new police officer

  • AFSCME hails passage of a balanced budget


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