20 ILCS 1305/1-17 — Illinois Code / Chapter 20 / Act 1305 / Section 1-17
Section 1-17
Status: in_force

(20 ILCS 1305/1-17) Sec. 1-17. Inspector General. (a) Nature and purpose. It is the express intent of the General Assembly to ensure the health, safety, and financial condition of individuals receiving services in this State due to mental illness, developmental disability, or both by protecting those persons from acts of abuse, neglect, or both by service providers. To that end, the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Human Services is created to investigate and report upon allegations of the abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of individuals receiving services within mental health facilities, developmental disabilities facilities, and community agencies operated, licensed, funded, or certified by the Department of Human Services, but not licensed or certified by any other State agency. (b) Definitions. The following definitions apply to this Section: "Agency" or "community agency" means (i) a community agency licensed, funded, or certified by the Department, but not licensed or certified by any other human services agency of the State, to provide mental health service or developmental disabilities service, or (ii) a program licensed, funded, or certified by the Department, but not licensed or certified by any other human services agency of the State, to provide mental health service or developmental disabilities service. "Aggravating circumstance" means a factor that is attendant to a finding and that tends to compound or increase the culpability of the accused. "Allegation" means an assertion, complaint, suspicion, or incident involving any of the following conduct by an employee, facility, or agency against an individual or individuals: mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, financial exploitation, or material obstruction of an investigation. "Day" means working day, unless otherwise specified. "Deflection" means a situation in which an individual is presented for admission to a facility or agency, and the facility staff or agency staff do not admit the individual. "Deflection" includes triage, redirection, and denial of admission. "Department" means the Department of Human Services. "Developmental disability" means "developmental disability" as defined in the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code. "Egregious neglect" means a finding of neglect as determined by the Inspector General that (i) represents a gross failure to adequately provide for, or a callused indifference to, the health, safety, or medical needs of an individual and (ii) results in an individual's death or other serious deterioration of an individual's physical condition or mental condition. "Employee" means any person who provides services at the facility or agency on-site or off-site. The service relationship can be with the individual or with the facility or agency. Also, "employee" includes any employee or contractual agent of the Department of Human Services or the community agency involved in providing or monitoring or administering mental health or developmental disability services. This includes but is not limited to: owners, operators, payroll personnel, contractors, subcontractors, and volunteers. "Facility" or "State-operated facility" means a mental health facility or developmental disabilities facility operated by the Department. "Financial exploitation" means taking unjust advantage of an individual's assets, property, or financial resources through deception, intimidation, or conversion for the employee's, facility's, or agency's own advantage or benefit. "Finding" means the Office of Inspector General's determination regarding whether an allegation is substantiated, unsubstantiated, or unfounded. "Health Care Worker Registry" or "Registry" means the Health Care Worker Registry under the Health Care Worker Background Check Act. "Individual" means any person receiving mental health service, developmental disabilities service, or both from a facility or agency, while either on-site or off-site. "Material obstruction of an investigation" means the purposeful interference with an investigation of physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation and includes, but is not limited to, the withholding or altering of documentation or recorded evidence; influencing, threatening, or impeding witness testimony; presenting untruthful information during an interview; failing to cooperate with an investigation conducted by the Office of the Inspector General. If an employee, following a criminal investigation of physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation, is convicted of an offense that is factually predicated on the employee presenting untruthful information during the course of the investigation, that offense constitutes obstruction of an investigation. Obstruction of an investigation does not include: an employee's lawful exercising of his or her constitutional right against self-incrimination, an employee invoking his or her lawful rights to union representation as provided by a collective bargaining agreement or the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, or a union representative's lawful activities providing representation under a collective bargaining agreement or the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. Obstruction of an investigation is considered material when it could significantly impair an investigator's ability to gather all relevant facts. An employee shall not be placed on the Health Care Worker Registry for presenting untruthful information during an interview conducted by the Office of the Inspector General, unless, prior to the interview, the employee was provided with any previous signed statements he or she made during the course of the investigation. "Mental abuse" means the use of demeaning, intimidating, or threatening words, signs, gestures, or other actions by an employee about an individual and in the presence of an individual or individuals that results in emotional distress or maladaptive behavior, or could have resulted in emotional distress or maladaptive behavior, for any individual present. "Mental illness" means "mental illness" as defined in the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code. "Mentally ill" means having a mental illness. "Mitigating circumstance" means a condition that (i) is attendant to a finding, (ii) does not excuse or justify the conduct in question, but (iii) may be considered in evaluating the severity of the conduct, the culpability of the accused, or both the severity of the conduct and the culpability of the accused. "Neglect" means an employee's, agency's, or facility's failure to provide adequate medical care, personal care, or maintenance and that, as a consequence, (i) causes an individual pain, injury, or emotional distress, (ii) results in either an individual's maladaptive behavior or the deterioration of an individual's physical condition or mental condition, or (iii) places the individual's health or safety at substantial risk. "Person with a developmental disability" means a person having a developmental disability. "Physical abuse" means an employee's non-accidental and inappropriate contact with an individual that causes bodily harm. "Physical abuse" includes actions that cause bodily harm as a result of an employee directing an individual or person to physically abuse another individual. "Presenting untruthful information" means making a false statement, material to an investigation of physical abuse, sexual abuse, mental abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation, knowing the statement is false. "Recommendation" means an admonition, separate from a finding, that requires action by the facility, agency, or Department to correct a systemic issue, problem, or deficiency identified during an investigation. "Recommendation" can also mean an admonition to correct a systemic issue, problem or deficiency during a review. "Required reporter" means any employee who suspects, witnesses, or is informed of an allegation of any one or more of the following: mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation. "Secretary" means the Chief Administrative Officer of the Department. "Sexual abuse" means any sexual contact or intimate physical contact between an employee and an individual, including an employee's coercion or encouragement of an individual to engage in sexual behavior that results in sexual contact, intimate physical contact, sexual behavior, or intimate physical behavior. Sexual abuse also includes (i) an employee's actions that result in the sending or showing of sexually explicit images to an individual via computer, cellular phone, electronic mail, portable electronic device, or other media with or without contact with the individual or (ii) an employee's posting of sexually explicit images of an individual online or elsewhere whether or not there is contact with the individual. "Sexually explicit images" includes, but is not limited to, any material which depicts nudity, sexual conduct, or sado-masochistic abuse, or which contains explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, or sado-masochistic abuse. "Substantiated" means there is a preponderance of the evidence to support the allegation. "Unfounded" means there is no credible evidence to support the allegation. "Unsubstantiated" means there is credible evidence, but less than a preponderance of evidence to support the allegation. (c) Appointment. The Governor shall appoint, and the Senate shall confirm, an Inspector General. The Inspector General shall be appointed for a term of 4 years and shall function within the Department of Human Services and report to the Secretary and the Governor. (d) Operation and appropriation. The Inspector General shall function independently within the Department with respect to the operations of the Office, including the performance of investigations and issuance of findings and recommendations and the performance of site visits and reviews of facilities and community agencies. The appropriation for the Office of Inspector General shall be separate from the overall appropriation for the Department. (e) Powers and duties. The Inspector General shall investigate reports of suspected mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of individuals in any mental health or developmental disabilities facility or agency and shall have authority to take immediate action to prevent any one or more of the following from happening to individuals under its jurisdiction: mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation. The Inspector General shall also investigate allegations of material obstruction of an investigation by an employee. Upon written request of an agency of this State, the Inspector General may assist another agency of the State in investigating reports of the abuse, neglect, or abuse and neglect of persons with mental illness, persons with developmental disabilities, or persons with both. The Inspector General shall conduct annual site visits of each facility and may conduct reviews of facilities and community agencies. To comply with the requirements of subsection (k) of this Section, the Inspector General shall also review all reportable deaths for which there is no allegation of abuse or neglect. Nothing in this Section shall preempt any duties of the Medical Review Board set forth in the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code. The Inspector General shall have no authority to investigate alleged violations of the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act. Allegations of misconduct under the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act shall be referred to the Office of the Governor's Executive Inspector General for investigation. (f) Limitations. The Inspector General shall not conduct an investigation within an agency or facility if that investigation would be redundant to or interfere with an investigation conducted by another State agency. The Inspector General shall have no supervision over, or involvement in, the routine programmatic, licensing, funding, or certification operations of the Department. Nothing in this subsection limits investigations by the Department that may otherwise be required by law or that may be necessary in the Department's capacity as central administrative authority responsible for the operation of the State's mental health and developmental disabilities facilities. (g) Rulemaking authority. The Inspector General shall promulgate rules establishing minimum requirements for reporting allegations as well as for initiating, conducting, and completing investigations based upon the nature of the allegation or allegations. The rules shall clearly establish that if 2 or more State agencies could investigate an allegation, the Inspector General shall not conduct an investigation that would be redundant to, or interfere with, an investigation conducted by another State agency. The rules shall further clarify the method and circumstances under which the Office of Inspector General may interact with the licensing, funding, or certification units of the Department in preventing further occurrences of mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, egregious neglect, financial exploitation, and material obstruction of an investigation. (g-5) Site visits and review authority. (1) Site visits. The Inspector General shall conduct unannounced site visits to each