SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday that is designed to strengthen penalties for healthcare employees who conspire to hide abuse or interfere with investigations into abuse or neglect allegations.

The legislation was introduced following an investigative series by Capitol News Illinois, Lee Enterprises Midwest and ProPublica into rampant abuses and cover-ups at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center, a state-run institution in southern Illinois that houses people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental illnesses.

Pritzker signed the bill on the same day the IDHS inspector general released a 34-page report that recommended a “top to bottom analysis” of all processes related to the reporting of abuse and neglect at Choate “because at the present time there appear to be fundamental problems with all aspects of that system.”

The report noted that at least eight people colluded to obstruct the state police and OIG investigation into a case of abuse.

Few staff members were forthcoming with details, even though they later told investigators it was the worst case of abuse they had ever seen.