This website provides the public with documents that build a more complete and accurate understanding of Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration’s response to the 2015 outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy (IVHQ).
Tens of thousands of documents – hundreds of thousands of pages -- are posted here. Many of these documents were shared with the General Assembly and media in 2017 and 2018.
These documents include emails from January 2015 through April 2018 from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Department of Public Health, and the Office of the Governor. These documents were collected from email sent to or from 70 employees, including the agencies’ Directors, Chiefs of Staff, Public Information Officers and other communications staff, leadership at IVHQ, and others who had involvement with the outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease or the response to it.
Those emails that contained any words from a list of search terms that included terms like variants of “Legionella” and “Legionnaire’s” were reviewed and, where appropriate, narrowly redacted in accordance with state and federal law. While the condition of individuals who contracted Legionnaires’ disease, how their cases progressed, and specific actions taken by their medical providers, IVHQ personnel, and others in relation to their illness may be of interest in understanding the outbreak, federal and state privacy laws limit the information that can be shared about patients. The documents in this set are redacted to comply with those laws, as well as other laws and privileges, such as the attorney-client privilege. Any redactions are labelled with the corresponding FOIA exemption.
These documents, if sifted through thoroughly with unbiased eyes and thoughts, will demonstrate how the focus on a small number of emails allowed the building of an inaccurate narrative that supported some political goals.
It is our hope that these documents provide the public with a more thorough understanding of the administration’s quick response to remediate the outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy.
* Inside this folder are seven(7) files containing information and an eighth file which contains instructions for downloading and unzipping the files. Please see file "IVHQ_Communications_Download_Instructions" ***
