La Grange Park Home's Data Discrepancy To Be Fixed

LA GRANGE PARK, IL — More than a month ago, a resident of Plymouth Place, a nursing home and assisted living facility in La Grange Park, died from the coronavirus. Four more deaths followed in the next 10 days. This is according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office and confirmed by the nursing home itself.

Illinois Coronavirus Update May 26: 113,195 Cases, 4,923 Deaths — Don't miss updates in La Grange as they are announced — Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters.

To this day, the state Department of Public Health's website does not include Plymouth Place among the facilities statewide with coronavirus outbreaks. But after three Patch stories on the issue, a department spokeswoman said Wednesday the state would add Plymouth Place to the list.

In mid-May, Plymouth Place told Patch that it had 17 coronavirus cases among residents and 27 among staff, for a total of 44. All the cases have been on the nursing home and assisted living side of its complex, not in the half designated for independent living.

The facility's officials said they have quickly reported coronavirus cases and deaths to county and state health departments. The state's reports on outbreaks include facilities with as few as two cases.

In a response to a Patch inquiry Tuesday, Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health, said she was double-checking where the deaths have occurred at Plymouth Place. If they happened in the nursing home or assisted living portions of the complex, then the information should be reflected in the list of outbreaks, she said. Cases in the independent living part would not be included in state numbers, she said.

On Wednesday, Arnold said Plymouth Place would be added to the website, which is only updated on Fridays.

"Because it is a multi-level community — independent and assisted living, as well as skilled nursing — we needed more information about where the outbreaks were occurring," she said in an email.

In an email Tuesday, the Cook County Department of Public Health said it was aware of 43 confirmed coronavirus cases and one death at Plymouth Place. It was unclear why two county departments — public health and the medical examiner — differed on the number of deaths.