Watchdog seeks harsher penalties in wake of abuse at Choate
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[January 20, 2023]
By BETH HUNDSDORFER
Capitol News Illinois
& MOLLY PARKER
Lee Enterprises Midwest
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in
partnership with Lee Enterprises, along with Capitol News Illinois.
The watchdog for the Illinois Department of Human Services is seeking
harsher penalties against health care workers who obstruct abuse and
neglect investigations.
IDHS Inspector General Peter Neumer’s call to action comes on the heels
of extensive reporting by Lee Enterprises, Capitol News Illinois and
ProPublica last year that revealed a culture of abuse and cover-ups at
Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in rural southern
Illinois. The news organizations detailed how uncooperative staff
stymied the state’s ability to hold employees facing serious abuse
allegations to account.
Specifically, Neumer is asking legislators for a change in law that
would allow his office to report workers engaged in similar misconduct
to an existing statewide registry. The move could bar those employees
from working in the health care field in Illinois.
The Health Care Worker Registry monitors direct care aides, nursing
assistants and other non-licensed health care officials; its database of
professionals includes those who are barred from working with vulnerable
populations. They may have been barred because of criminal records or if
they have been found in an administrative proceeding to have engaged in
financial exploitation, what is known as “egregious neglect” or physical
and sexual abuse.
Under the current system, state workers who help their colleagues by
lying to or misleading investigators can face termination if they’re
caught, but findings against them can’t be reported to the registry. So
short of criminal charges, which are rare, nothing would prevent them
from going to work in another health care setting.
The Office of the Inspector General “regularly sees instances where
facility or agency staff seek to protect each other from the
consequences of their misconduct by remaining silent about what they
witnessed or lying to protect their fellow employees," Neumer wrote in a
recently released annual report on his office’s work.
In a follow-up interview, Neumer said expanding his office’s authority
would help deter employees from “engaging in cover-up behavior or
code-of-silence activity if they were aware that by doing so they risked
losing their employment and possibly their ability to work in the health
care industry in Illinois.”
For the earlier stories, reporters combed hundreds of pages of records,
identifying more than four dozen cases between 2015 and 2021 in which
the OIG cited Choate employees for providing false statements to the
office’s investigators; for failing to make a timely report in
accordance with the law; and for other failures to follow department
policy concerning reporting and investigating abuse and neglect
allegations. The few Choate workers charged with obstruction of justice
or official misconduct for interfering with an investigation have had
their charges dropped or reduced.
One case involved a mental health technician caught on a 911 audio
recording threatening to break a patient’s finger. Though other voices
could also be heard on the 911 call that was accidentally placed via a
smartwatch, the other workers present refused to identify the
perpetrator. The county prosecutor declined to bring charges related to
the threats on the 911 call, citing insufficient evidence.
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Collage by ProPublica. Source Images:
Whitney Curtis for ProPublica and IDHS Office of the Inspector
General FY22 Annual Report.
IDHS did not dispute any of the news organizations’ previously reported
findings, saying in a statement at the time that the agency requires
employees to cooperate with administrative investigations and trains
them on the importance of giving law enforcement complete and truthful
information. This week, a spokesperson said that although the inspector
general works independently, IDHS has closely monitored the situation at
Choate, worked with the inspector general and governor to implement
reform, and “looks forward to reviewing and working collaboratively with
lawmakers and the OIG on any legislative solutions.”
In his report, Neumer cited the inability to issue a finding to the
registry in a particularly egregious 2014 abuse case at Choate that the
news organizations had highlighted. In that case, at least 48 hours
passed before anyone at the facility reported abuse to authorities,
though numerous workers later told state police investigators that the
patient’s injuries were some of the worst they’d ever seen. Throughout
the state police investigation, multiple employees coordinated their
stories and lied about what happened and who witnessed it, according to
state police records.
Three of those employees were charged with felony obstruction of justice
and each later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for failing to report the
abuse to authorities. But those workers remained on the state payroll
for nearly eight years. Others who knew about the abuse but didn’t
report it faced no penalties.
This fall, the inspector general issued findings against eight employees
it said engaged in the cover-up and recommended firing those who still
worked at the facility. The employees were dismissed, but the law only
allowed the inspector general to report one worker to the registry, the
person whom his office found had committed the abuse. As a result,
nothing bars the other seven from working in other health care settings.
Neumer told the news organizations that his proposal defines “material
obstruction” as withholding or altering documentation or recorded
evidence; improperly influencing, threatening or impeding witness
testimony; giving untruthful information during an interview; failing to
cooperate in an OIG investigation and lying to law enforcement.
Employees would not be punished for exercising their lawful right
against self-incrimination in a criminal case, he said.
Legislators in the Illinois House and Senate toured Choate last year in
the wake of the news organizations’ reports, and they have held private
meetings about issues where legislative solutions may be needed.
A spokesperson for House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said he was
“incredibly troubled” by the reports on Choate and is “closely
reviewing” the inspector general’s recommendations.
At an unrelated news conference in September, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said
that he had no plans to close Choate but would consider doing so if the
facility was unable to improve safety conditions for patients. His
spokesperson did not respond to specific questions about whether he
believed the facility had since taken adequate steps to improve
conditions.
In a statement issued last week, the spokesperson said that the governor
worked with leaders at IDHS to implement reforms, and that he “looks
forward to reviewing and working collaboratively with lawmakers and the
OIG on any legislative solutions.” |