How much misconduct is too much?

Two months after an investigation revealed systemic abuse of developmentally disabled patients at a state facility in downstate Anna, problems apparently continue.

Grace Hou, director of the Illinois Department of Human Services, promised an all-out effort to improve the situation there.

But two developments raise huge concerns. Hou initially insisted that the incumbent facility director was the best person equipped to oversee a fix because of his familiarity with operations now. More recently, Hou reversed herself, removing Bryant Davis, the director of the Choate Mental Health and Development Center since 2014.

Hou replaced Davis with another administrator who has worked at Choate for about six months.

Even more disturbing is a report from an outside advocacy agency — Equip for Equality — that continued to scrutinize patient treatment and concluded that little has changed.

Equip for Equality found conditions at Choate to be so bad that “no patients with developmental disabilities should remain at Choate.”

That is a striking recommendation, one sure to raise policy as well as political concerns. But it’s not as shocking as it might first appear.

State officials previously announced plans to transfer at least half of Choate’s 235 patients within three years.

Transfers might not be much of a solution. Investigative reporting by Lee Enterprises, ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois found that problems like those at Choate are “common throughout the statewide system.”

Perhaps that’s why state promises of a commitment to “the highest-quality care” at Choate and elsewhere appear to be empty rhetoric issued in response to embarrassing headlines.

Workers at developmental facilities obviously have difficult jobs caring for their patients. But it cannot be too much to ask for an abuse-free environment.

In calling for the transfer of Choate’s patients elsewhere, Equip for Equality maintained that keeping them there is “antithetical to their well being” because they receive poor care and are subject to abuse and not provided rehabilitative services.

Frankly, it sounds as if patients there are simply warehoused, creating conditions that lead to patient/staff conflicts.

Patients told investigators they are reluctant to report physical abuse for fear of their caretakers retaliating against them.

At the same time, the state’s earlier investigation said employees cover up for each other by not reporting misconduct or denying that anything inappropriate occurred. Conversely, employees disturbed by what they’ve seen keep quiet out of fear of retribution from administrators or their fellow employees.

This disgrace to the state is showing dangerous signs of being intractable. But the status quo cannot be allowed to stand.

Human Services officials are under the gun. But so, too, is Gov. J.B. Pritzker — it is, after all, his department, run by his appointees. The governor has the power to send a powerful message to those down the line, and he should do so.

If that causes him problems with the union that represents Choate employees, so be it. Decency and compassion require far more positive action than what’s occurred since the June report from the state inspector general.