Testimony of Robin Best, Staff Specialist, The Illinois Nurses Association
Given on Tuesday, November 15, 2016
To the Illinois House of Representatives Committee on Human Services
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Robin Best and I currently work for the
Illinois Nurses Association representing registered nurses employed in state agencies, specifically the Illinois
Department of Corrections.
I am here today to speak on behalf of our veterans who are currently residing in state operated veteran
homes, men and women who have served their country and are spending their later years in these state
operated facilities.
These men and women deserve dignity and respect in their later years of life and as elderly, honored citizens
of our state, deserve quality and safe medical care in these years. This is a time when they are experiencing a
number of mental and physical disabilities and ailments.
The Illinois Nurses Association has recently been served notice that the Department of Veterans Affairs is
considering subcontracting medical care to these facilities. If these services are subcontracted, a very grave
decision will have been made, one that could seriously impact the health and well-being of our veterans as
well as the agency as a whole.
I am well aware of the serious impact of subcontracting these services as I have been employed in some area
of correctional nursing for the past 30 plus years. The Department of Corrections made this grave decision in
the late 1970’s and medical care and safety for offenders has been drastically affected as a result. This is
evident by the number of lawsuits currently pending against the Illinois Department of Corrections and
Wexford Health Sources by offenders claiming negligence of proper medical and mental health care,
specifically the Rasho and Lippert cases. These cases have cost the agency time and money to meet the
mandates of these lawsuits.
The Federal Department of Justice has recently decided to cease private contracting prison facilities because of
safety and security issues. They have determined that for profit companies are less safe and less effective at
providing services than those run by the government. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates stated recently that
they simply do not provide the same level of services, programs, and resources, they do not save substantial
costs, and they do not maintain the same level of safety. The federal government has determined that the
additional costs of monitoring these contracts may outstrip any costs savings they may produce.
Private vendors are allowed to operate by less stringent rules than government employees. The more specifics
you put in a contract, the more money the contractors are going to want to perform vital and necessary
services that these veterans need and deserve.
In the Illinois Department of Corrections we have seen such unsafe medical practices that an article was
published in the Illinois Times in June of 2015 that the care could be deemed “cruel and unusual punishment”.
Subcontracting has made an imprisonment a potential death sentence. Examples of issues with
subcontracting are as follows:
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Delayed diagnosis and deliberate indifference to prompt medical care, some resulting in death,
specifically
a. A 48 year old offender pleaded for medical help after he experienced chest pain and coughing up
blood, it took 6 months for vendor doctors and nurses to locate a softball size cancerous tumor
clinging to his neck and lung, unfortunately it was too late and he died 4 months later
b. An offender doing time for a minor DUI offense was assaulted by another offender and was left in
segregation for days complaining of pain and only being given Advil, only when he was transferred
to another facility was it realized he had a fractured jaw, by this time he required surgery to
rebreak the jaw, titanium plates and 6 screws in his face. The doctor remains to this day employed
by the facility.
c. A diabetic who sustained a blister on his foot was not given immediate medical attention and it
resulted in an amputation
d. Another offender died after suffering for months with colon cancer that went undiagnosed.
e. The list goes on and on but for the sake of time I refer you to public media and press coverage for
the many horrid details of how these offenders have been left in pain and to possibly die without
appropriate medical care.
The contractor hires less skilled medical providers, they require less education and experience than
state employed nurses and doctors
Medications must be ordered off of a limited formulary, many times patients are denied more updated
and better medications
The vendor has and is failing to provide the necessary hours of doctor, nursing, and mental health
provider coverage, facilities have gone weeks without a doctor or psychiatrist on staff, they are unable
to meet their nursing mandates as well. This results in the vendor being required to reimburse the
state money owed for these services, in many cases these reimbursements are NOT used for medical
care.
Inadequate mental health services has resulted in a major lawsuit
They have failed to provide adequate and necessary supplies such as gloves, thermometer covers, and
simplistic equipment such as BP cuffs and pulse ox machines. One facility went without gloves for
weeks during a flu epidemic.
Facilities have been totally taken over by the vendor in all aspects of policy and procedure as it relates
to medical care and there are not enough government employees to monitor the compliance of the
services that the company is contracted to provide.
This is just to mention a few problems with a for profit vendor providing medical services. Offenders have
suffered and the agency as a whole has suffered. I do not want to see our veterans come to the same demise.
I am asking this committee to intervene in this decision. Do not take the risk of the unknown and place it on a
for profit company. Our veterans deserve better than that.
Thank you.