VA Destroys Vets Medical Records To Eliminate Backlog

[Iceweasel]

The main problem with the VA is that it's filled with civil servants, which is an oxymoron these days. Many of them simply don't give a shit and do the barest minimum while scooping up their fat paychecks and bennies. As is too often the case with government employees.

I worked in a VA hospital for over three years and so my opinion isn't without reason. I also had some treatment there on occasion as an employee. Once I had an ear infection. The appointment took two months. When the doctor asked how long I had it he said "only two months?" in a casual indifferent way.

He prescribed some ear drops so I went down to the pharmacy and handed over the script. And wait. And waited. Four hours later with almost no one in the waiting room, many having come and gone and me asking about it I was told to wait some more. I walked out without my medication. But for all I know it could have eaten my ear drum. You people that want government in medicine are clueless.

 

[badger2]

Tomah has been mentioned in this thread, and "bad paper" cases should be examined with much more rigour, exemplified in the Brian Rossell / PTSD suicide. Note that "bad paper" can be created from within a medical installation. The "bad paper" victim cannot prove that the prescription was stolen outright from them, though if they oppose the theft, they will be stigmatized as "bad paper." Predatory capitalism's movements of extreme violence (the thieves get paid twice) is a very special delirium and stigmatizes swiftly: once stigmatized as "bad paper" the victim-scapegoat may have problems in choosing a quality doctor or future problems with medical insurance.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - The Donald cleanin' up the VA backlog mess...

Congress Approves Bill to Address VA Claims Backlog
12 Aug 2017 | Congress has sent the president a bill aimed at trimming a rapidly growing backlog of veterans' disability claims.

The House approved the bill by voice vote Friday during a brief session, sending the measure to President Donald Trump. The House is on recess, but a handful of lawmakers gaveled the chamber in and out of a session that lasted less than five minutes. The veterans' bill, approved by the Senate Aug. 1, would reduce the time it takes for the Department of Veterans Affairs to handle appeals from veterans unhappy with their disability payouts. The measure is part of an ongoing effort to reduce a longstanding claims backlog and is a priority for VA Secretary David Shulkin, who calls the appeals process "broken."

Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he was pleased at the bill's passage. "When it comes to putting our nation's heroes first, there can be no doubt that Congress has been hard at work," Roe said. Besides the claims bill, Congress also approved a measure to remove time restrictions on veterans' use of GI Bill benefits and cleared a $3.9 billion emergency spending package to fix a looming budget crisis and extend a program that allows veterans to receive private medical care at government expense. Trump is expected to sign all three bills.

On disability claims, the measure passed Friday would overhaul the appeals process, allowing veterans to file "express" appeals if they waive their right to a hearing or the ability to submit new evidence. The VA could test the new program for up to 18 months until Shulkin could certify it was ready for a full rollout with enough money to manage appeals effectively. Lawmakers hope the legislation ultimately will reduce average wait times to less than a year.

Currently, veterans can wait up to five years or more to resolve appeals over disability claims. "For too long our veterans and their families have faced unacceptable delays during the VA's benefits claims appeal process," said Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. The legislation offers no immediate fix for the bulk of the 470,000 appeals claims in VA's backlog; the changes would apply almost entirely to newly filed appeals. The VA provides $63.7 billion in disability compensation payments each year to about 4.1 million veterans with disabling conditions incurred during their military service.

Congress Approves Bill to Address VA Claims Backlog | Military.com

See also:

Report: New Mexico VA Office Denies 90 Percent of Gulf War Claims
14 Aug 2017 - A Veterans Affairs office during the 2015 fiscal year denied more than 90 percent of benefit claims related to Gulf War illnesses

A Veterans Affairs office in New Mexico during the 2015 fiscal year denied more than 90 percent of benefit claims related to Gulf War illnesses, marking the ninth-lowest approval rating among VA sites nationwide, according to a federal report. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Albuquerque office denied 592 of 640 Gulf War illness claims in 2015, which is the latest yearly data available, The Albuquerque Journal reported earlier this week. The report released in June from the Government Accountability Office found approval rates for Gulf War illness claims are one-third as high as for other disabling conditions. The Gulf War illness claims also took an average of four months longer to process.

A visitor leaves the Sacramento Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Rancho Cordova, Calif.​

Gulf War illness was first identified in soldiers returning home from Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield in the early 1990s. But it has been found to afflict soldiers who have served in other parts of the Middle East since then as well. The illness includes a wide variety of symptoms and conditions, from fatigue and skin problems to insomnia and indigestion. It is believed the conditions may be the result of exposure to burn pits, oil well fires or depleted uranium weapons during service. The report concluded that instituting required training for medical examiners, clarifying claim decision letters sent to veterans and developing a single definition for the illness would increase consistency in approval rates and reduce confusion among staff and veterans.

Currently, a 90-minute training course on Gulf War illness is voluntary. Only about 10 percent of the VA's 4,000 medical examiners had completed it as of February, according to the report. Sonja Brown, acting associate director of the New Mexico VA Health Care System, did not say how many of the Albuquerque medical examiners have completed the course. "The Gulf War Examination training is currently on the curriculum for our medical examiners with a due date of 8/10/2017 to complete," Brown wrote in an email. "While I don't have a percentage of those completed, I can tell you that the training is being taken." The VA plans to make training mandatory, with all medical examiners expected to complete the program by October.

Report: New Mexico VA Office Denies 90 Percent of Gulf War Claims | Military.com

 

[Dan Stubbs]

This sounds like a pilot program for ObamaCare!

In order to deal with a backlog of requests for medical care, the health care bureaucrat vanguard stationed in the Veterans Administration decided to destroy the records...and voila! Much less backlog!

This is what we should expect as the ginormous snowball of ObamaCare Fake Coverage causes a big backlog of requests for care in networks that are too small to handle the demand.

Hopenchange!

mployees of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) destroyed veterans’ medical files in a systematic attempt to eliminate backlogged veteran medical exam requests, a former VA employee told The Daily Caller.

Audio of an internal VA meeting obtained by TheDC confirms that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally canceled backlogged patient exam requests.

“The committee was called System Redesign and the purpose of the meeting was to figure out ways to correct the department’s efficiency. And one of the issues at the time was the backlog,” Oliver Mitchell, a Marine veteran and former patient services assistant in the VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, told TheDC.

“We just didn’t have the resources to conduct all of those exams. Basically we would get about 3,000 requests a month for [medical] exams, but in a 30-day period we only had the resources to do about 800. That rolls over to the next month and creates a backlog,” Mitchell said. ”It’s a numbers thing. The waiting list counts against the hospitals efficiency. The longer the veteran waits for an exam that counts against the hospital as far as productivity is concerned.”

By 2008, some patients were “waiting six to nine months for an exam” and VA “didn’t know how to address the issue,” Mitchell said.

VA Greater Los Angeles Radiology department chief Dr. Suzie El-Saden initiated an “ongoing discussion in the department” to cancel exam requests and destroy veterans’ medical files so that no record of the exam requests would exist, thus reducing the backlog, Mitchell said.

Audio from a November 2008 meeting obtained by TheDC depicts VA Greater Los Angeles officials plotting to cancel backlogged exam requests.

“I’m still canceling orders from 2001,” said a male official in the meeting.

“Anything over a year old should be canceled,” replied a female official.

“Canceled or scheduled?” asked the male official.

“Canceled. …

Read more: VA destroyed veteran medical records to delete exam requests | The Daily Caller

I heard that they hired a guy from Mexico and he made a error and thought the shredder was the copy machine.

 

[waltky]

Acting undersecretary for VA Health Care System Steps Down...

Chief of VA Health Care System Steps Down
7 Oct 2017 | Dr. Poonam Alaigh, acting undersecretary for health since May, told VA employees that she was resigning for family reasons.

The leader of the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system unexpectedly stepped down from her position, effective Saturday, leaving three top VA positions unfilled by permanent undersecretaries. Dr. Poonam Alaigh, the acting undersecretary for health since May, sent a message to VA employees last week informing them she was resigning for family reasons. "I have made the difficult decision to step down," Alaigh wrote. "I want you to know that it has been my greatest honor to serve [VA Secretary David Shulkin], each one of you and all of our veterans. As I prepare to now leave Washington, I thank you sincerely for what you have helped us to accomplish."

Alaigh will be replaced by Dr. Carolyn Clancy, who will take the position in an interim role. Clancy has been with the VA for more than 10 years and will now oversee a health system comprising more than 160 medical centers and 1,000 clinics that serves 9 million veterans. The job switches hands during a time when the VA is wrangling with significant changes on how it delivers health care. The VA and Congress are expected to introduce proposals this month to overhaul the Veterans Choice Program, which allows some veterans to seek care in the private sector. In addition to the undersecretary for health, the chiefs of the VA's two other sectors -- benefits and cemeteries -- are also temporarily filled.

A screen grab shows Dr. Poonam Alaigh as seen in a July 2011 video post. According to an Oct. 6 report, Alaigh was to resign her post as the VA's acting undersecretary for health.​

In March, the VA established a search commission to find a permanent undersecretary of benefits, responsible for overseeing 60 regional benefits offices that distribute billions of dollars each year among more than four million veterans. The commission was expected to find a person to fill the role by April 20, according to a VA news release. Similarly, the agency created a search commission in April to find an undersecretary of health. The VA reported it would find one by May 22. VA Press Secretary Curt Cashour said Friday that the VA was "making steady progress" in the search. "Our primary goal is to find the right permanent official for these critical leadership roles, rather than simply fill for expedience," he said.

On Sept. 1, President Donald Trump nominated Randy Reeves as the VA undersecretary for memorial affairs. The person in that position manages the National Cemetery Administration and the country's 135 veterans cemeteries. Reeves -- a Navy veteran and executive director of the Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board -- was questioned by the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee on Wednesday and he must be confirmed by the full Senate before he can take the position. Trump nominated Thomas Bowman to the VA's No. 2 position June 21 and the Senate confirmed him Aug. 3 as the new VA deputy secretary.

Chief of VA Health Care System Steps Down | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Politicians Outraged Over Vet's Death at VA Hospital...

Politicians Share Outrage Over Vet's Death at VA Hospital
19 Oct 2017 | A nurse's aide was playing video games on her computer when she should have checked in on the patient.

Members of the Bay State congressional delegation expressed outrage after a Vietnam veteran who required round-the-clock care died at the Bedford VA Medical Center. The Boston Globe reported Tuesday that Bill Nutter, who had lost both legs to diabetes and had a condition in which his heart could stop, died at the veterans' hospital in July 2016 after a night-shift aide failed to check on him. U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark said in an emailed statement: "When families trust the well-being of their loved ones to the VA, they deserve the peace of mind that comes with quality, compassionate care. That any veteran is subject to the treatment described today is unconscionable, and we must use every available resource to not only get to the bottom of what happened at the Bedford VA, but also to make sure it never happens again."

U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) (C) speaks as (L-R) Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) listen during a news conference at the Capitol April 27, 2017 in Washington, DC.​

Matt Corridoni, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, said Moulton was expected to have a phone conversation with Veteran Affairs Secretary David Shulkin Wednesday to discuss Nutter's death. The Globe reported Shulkin's office suspended the nurse's aide with pay. The aide was supposed to make hourly checks on Nutter. The aide was playing video games on her computer when she should have checked in on Nutter, the report said. The VA inspector general is investigating the allegations against the aide with assistance from the FBI and U.S. Attorney General's Office, the report said.

Michael Hartigan, a spokesman for U.S. Rep Niki Tsongas, said in a statement: "A primary concern of hers has been that the Bedford VA has been without a permanent director for so long. She has repeatedly requested that VA and Administration officials update her directly with regard to actions they are taking to address complaints raised not only in these articles, but also by veterans who have reached out to our office directly." U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted: "This is a disgrace. Our veterans deserve better. I'll be demanding answers and accountability from @DeptVetAffairs."

Politicians Share Outrage Over Vet's Death at VA Hospital | Military.com

See also:

Training on Veteran Suicides Set at Nevada Prisons
19 Oct 2017 — Four months after he enlisted in the Army, John Morse IV was in Iraq. Last year, he hanged himself in a Nevada prison.

Four months after he enlisted in the U.S. Army at 18, John Morse IV was on the front lines in Iraq training the sights of laser range finders on combat targets to be shelled. For the next four years, the fire-support specialist watched dozens of people in his unit die, saw missile fire kill civilians and witnessed the aftermath of a mass beheading. Last year, the 27-year-old who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder hanged himself in a Nevada prison. His family was awarded a $93,000 settlement last week in a wrongful death suit accusing the Nevada Department of Corrections, a state psychiatrist and state psychologist of ignoring Morse's mental illness.

More important than the money, his family says, is the state's commitment to launch a new suicide training protocol for prison workers intended to help jailed combat veterans like their son — a decorated war hero they say deserved better. "He entered the war a healthy, happy teenager and returned a devastated shell, emotionally ravaged and physically scarred," according to the lawsuit filed in April by his widow, Stephanie Morse, and parents Debbie and John Morse III. They had sought $800,000 in damages. "Nothing can replace my son, but I'm satisfied," the father said. The state initially offered $25,000 then agreed to the settlement in U.S. District Court in Reno — $92,500 for the family, $500 for a plaque or memorial.

John Morse IV poses in Reno, Nev. The state of Nevada has agreed to pay $93,000 to settle a wrongful death suit filed by the family of the 27-year-old U.S. Army veteran.​

John Morse IV earned a half-dozen medals, including the Iraq Campaign medal, before he returned to his family in 2009. He briefly worked as a casino security guard and in a fast-food restaurant but was soon unable to work or function in society, the lawsuit said. He "became preoccupied with religious delusion, space aliens, suicide and the unrelenting death and devastation he witnessed," the lawsuit said. He gave away his money and lived under a bridge. His father remembers the day his son telephoned from Iraq to tell him about "walking into a room and seeing a bunch of women beheaded." "My heart literally broke," his father said. "I knew he'd never be the same again. ... But I had no idea how badly John was hurt inside. It's hard to tell when there are no physical, visual impairments."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs concluded in a report last year that 20 veterans a day commit suicide. An updated study released last month found the national suicide rate among veterans was more than double the rate for the general population. It said Montana, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico had the highest rates of veteran suicide as of 2014 — at least 60 for every 100,000 veterans. VA doctors diagnosed Morse with PTSD and paranoid schizophrenia in 2010. He went to prison in 2015 after attempting suicide and threatening to kill his girlfriend in a bizarre "blood covenant," but he received no medication, counseling or treatment behind bars and was placed in the general population, the lawsuit stated. Based on his pre-sentencing report, prison officials should have known Morse was a potentially suicidal PTSD victim who experienced flashbacks and had been prescribed medications for paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disease, according to the lawsuit filed by Reno lawyers Terri Keyser-Cooper and Luke Busby.

They said Morse should have been monitored and treated inside one of two psychiatric units at the prison in Carson City. "If he had been placed in either ... he would be alive today," Keyser-Cooper said. State lawyers said in July that all three defendants in the case denied the allegations and had considerable evidence to support their defense. They later agreed to the settlement and new training in consultation with suicide prevention experts. It's not clear when that training will begin. Monica Moazez, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, referred requests for comment to the Department of Corrections. The agency has "implemented a number of veteran integration programs which are quite successful and (is) always considering incorporating more evidence based programs in support of incarcerated veterans," department spokeswoman Brooke Keast said in an email.

Training on Veteran Suicides Set at Nevada Prisons | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - the more things change, the more dey remain the same...

Will the VA's Transformation End Before it Really Begins?
3 Nov 2017 | There are rumors in the media that Shulkin interviewed for Tom Price's former Secretary of Health and Human Services role.

David Shulkin, MD, has been a transformative force within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) during his two-year tenure. But now there are rumors in The Washington Post that he interviewed for Tom Price's former Secretary of Health and Human Services role. Shulkin brings what The New York Times calls a "tireless focus on efficiency" from his private sector career in healthcare management. At the VA, Shulkin has already made waves by setting up online appointment booking for patients, releasing data around patient wait times, and shifting to a surprising electronic health record (EHR) vendor.

He has developed a reputation for making change happen and cutting through bureaucracy. As undersecretary, when his staff said it would take almost a year to plan an event to discuss veteran suicides, Dr. Shulkin said the delay would cost 6,000 veteran lives and successfully pushed to hold the summit in a month instead. This possible exit comes just as the VA is about to roll out its master plan for ensuring every veteran has access to timely, quality care -- and at a time when the healthcare sector has just started to see the results of what Shulkin's focus on efficiency and technology could deliver.

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is seen at the Veterans Affairs Department in Washington.​

The VA is roughly the same size as Kaiser Permanente, but easily lags a decade behind the HMO. Where Kaiser manages a physician-to-patient ratio of 554 to 1 -- one doctor for every 554 patients -- the VA is 55% behind at just 356 to 1. Kaiser transformed this metric over a decade through a focus on better matching of projected patient volumes with provider capacities, telemedicine, use of mid-levels, and smarter physician shift scheduling -- the kinds of transformations Shulkin is known for. If the VA could match Kaiser's physician-to-patient ratio (an initiative which I'm sure Shulkin would be capable of leading), the department would save $1.6 billion a year.

Those savings could be applied to increase VA physician salaries to Kaiser levels -- currently, the VA pays 21% less to primary care physicians and 55% less to surgeons on average -- which, in turn, would help combat the VA's physician turnover issue, which is 4x higher than at Kaiser. And the VA would still save $427 million a year after these raises. (If this research interests you, there's an 11-page report to download comparing the VA and Kaiser in detail.) Imagine the technology investments Shulkin could make with these millions in savings. He could restore the department's leadership in health technology and deliver the quality care our nation's veterans deserve. Hopefully, he'll stick around to see the dream of an efficient, high-tech VA come to fruition.

Op-Ed: Will the VA's Transformation End Before it Really Begins? | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Vietnam Vet dies in Michigan VA hospital foulup...

Michigan Man Who Died Because of VA Error Was Vietnam Vet
10 Nov 2017 — A man who died because of a stunning error at a Veterans Affairs hospital was a 66-year-old Vietnam War veteran.

A man who died because of a stunning error at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Michigan was a 66-year-old Vietnam War veteran who liked to throw darts and shoot pool. Roy Griffith confirmed to The Associated Press that his son, William Griffith, was the man who died last December when a nurse at a VA hospital in Ann Arbor mistakenly believed he had a no-resuscitation order. Griffith's death was investigated by the inspector general at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A report released Tuesday called the case "disturbing," although the patient's name wasn't disclosed.

Griffith was suffering from chest pain and stopped breathing while recovering from artery bypass surgery. No one at the hospital attempted to resuscitate him, and he died the day after Christmas. The elder Griffith declined further comment Thursday. William Griffith's wife, Roberta Griffith, also declined to comment. "We miss him horribly," Griffith's sister, Sara Schuyler, told AP.

The cover of the crypt that holds the cremated remains of Vietnam War veteran William Griffith is seen at Great Lakes National Cemetery, Nov. 9, 2017, in Holly, Mich.​

Griffith served two years in the Army during the Vietnam War, returning home with injuries in 1971, according to his obituary. He enjoyed darts and billiards. His cremated remains were interred at Great Lakes National Cemetery, a cemetery for veterans in Holly, Michigan, not far from his Oakland County home. "Bill was a likable man who would do anything if you needed him to. He loved his family and will be missed by all who knew him," the obituary said.

Separately, Reps. Debbie Dingell and Tim Walberg said Thursday they've asked the VA for assurances that a "similar tragedy never happens again." A spokesman for the hospital, Brian Hayes, said changes have been made, including a requirement that two people confirm the status of a patient's resuscitation order. The nurse who made the fatal mistake told investigators that he apparently was confused over Griffith's status that day. Hayes said the nurse could be fired.

Michigan Man Who Died Because of VA Error Was Vietnam Vet | Military.com

 

[Likkmee]

The V.A. is a socialist entity.......just like all the Hallowmas costume wearing retards stealing all of your tax dollars fighting socialism and communism. The very values these idiots adhere to.

 

[Likkmee]

Please forgive me. Unemployable idiots

 

[badger2]

Both patient and administration names will be scrubbed. Brian Rossell, Charles Ingram.

 

[badger2]

Mandatory videocams so that Nurse Ratchet can pretend she's a star'n a silver-screen classic.

 

[badger2]

Shrink's worst nightmare, vets going in for an appointment, we recommend a small Olympus digital. That should suffice for the audio part. A collective purchase of this technology and the sharing of the unit can help keep costs low.

 

[waltky]

VA Hospitals Could Be Left Vulnerable to Violence...

VA Hospitals Could Be Left Vulnerable to Violence: Watchdog Report
12 Jan 2018 | WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs isn't following certain security standards at its hospitals and clinics that are required of all federal buildings, potentially putting patients and visitors at risk, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released Thursday.

The watchdog agency's report detailed shortcomings in VA security, most notably that it does not require facilities to alter security measures based on fluctuating threat levels. "This could leave staff, patients, and visitors, as well as property, vulnerable to unmitigated risks," wrote Lori Rectanus, a director with the GAO. The report was sent to congressional committees, VA Secretary David Shulkin and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The VA agreed with the findings and responded that it was re-examining and updating its security policies. Rectanus wrote in a letter to Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, that the hundreds of VA hospital and clinics nationwide recently had been "the target of violence, threats and other security-related incidents -- including bomb threats and violent attacks involving weapons."

She referenced one fatal shooting in 2015, when a psychologist was killed at a VA clinic in El Paso, Texas. "Ensuring physical security for these medical centers can be complicated because VA has to balance safety and security with providing an open and welcoming healthcare environment," Rectanus said. The VA requires security cameras, silent distress alarms, perimeter fencing and a police force at all of its hospitals, the report states. But security levels differ at each facility, and there's little oversight. The agency leaves security decisions to local officials, and it doesn't have system-wide performance measures. That means the VA doesn't have the ability to determine what security measures are effective, the GAO found. "VA cannot ensure that local physical security decisions are based on actual risk, are appropriate to protect the facility and are effective or whether the variations or the security impact of them are important," the report states.

The type of oversight VA lacks is required of all government agencies by the Interagency Security Committee. The committee is a government body created by former President Bill Clinton in 1995, following the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Before then, minimum security standards did not exist for non-military federal buildings.

During the GAO review, inspectors traveled to nine VA hospitals from September 2016 to this month. They visited facilities in Bedford, Massachusetts; Houston; Los Angeles; Bay Pines, Florida; Sheridan, Wyoming; Washington, D.C.; Puget Sound, Washington; Orlando, Florida, and Louisville, Kentucky. The staff levels of the police forces varied at each hospital and all of them had vacancies in their forces because of recruiting difficulties. The VA agreed to comply with the GAO's recommendations that it change its risk-management policies and better oversee security at all of its hospitals. Gina Farrisee, VA deputy chief of staff, said in a letter that the agency would complete the recommendations by next January.

VA Hospitals Could Be Left Vulnerable to Violence: Watchdog Report

 

[badger2]

The VA scandal for over-prescription of opiates was linked to Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, who is now in Washington.

 

[waltky]

New VA Secretary Pledges Cleanup Of Scandal-Plagued VA DC Hospital...

New VA Secretary Pledges Cleanup Of Scandal-Plagued DC Hospital
7 Aug 2018 - In his second week on the job, new VA Secretary Robert Wilkie pledged a cleanup of the scandal-plagued Washington, D.C., Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center where inspectors found doctors using rusty surgical tools and identified a sense of "complacency" in the facility's leadership.

Wilkie went to VAMC Monday, where he was told that plans were in place for "assuring reliable availability and sterilization of instruments for surgical procedures," the VA said in a release. Wilkie also was told that an electronic inventory was being set up to make sure that the hospital, serving about 90,000 veterans in the D.C. area, overcomes chronic equipment shortages. Previous reports from the VA's Office of Inspector General charged that VAMC staffers at times had to make emergency runs to neighboring hospitals to ask for supplies. The hospital had to borrow bone material for knee replacement surgeries and also ran out of tubes needed for kidney dialysis, forcing staff to go to a private-sector hospital to procure them, the IG's report last year said.

VAMC officials also told Wilkie that they were doing better at making timely appointments, particularly for prosthetics. "We had a good visit today, and I appreciated hearing from facility and regional leadership on the important work that has been done to address the Inspector General's concerns, as well as plans for resolving all its remaining recommendations," Wilkie said in a statement. "There have been substantial improvements over the past few months in practice management, logistics and prosthetics in particular, and leaders have a strong plan ahead for even more progress in the coming weeks." Wilkie approved yet another shuffle of VAMC's leadership to implement the changes. The current acting director, Adam M. Robinson Jr., will return to his previous position as director of the VA Maryland Health Care System.

Washington, D.C., Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.​

A new permanent director for VAMC has been identified, and the name will be announced "in the near future," the VA said. In the interim, VAMC Chief of Staff Charles Faselis will serve as acting director of the facility. Damning reports from VA Inspector General Michael Missal on conditions at VAMC were a factor in the downfall of Wilkie's predecessor as VA Secretary, Dr. David Shulkin, who was fired in a Tweet by President Donald Trump in March. In April 2017, Missal took the unusual step of issuing an emergency report on conditions at VAMC before his inspection was complete to avoid putting patients at risk. In his scathing report, IG Missal said that storage areas for medical supplies at the VAMC were filthy, management was clueless on what was in the storage areas, medical supply rejects may have been used on patients and more than $150 million in supplies and equipment had never been inventoried.

Shulkin relieved VAMC Director Brian Hawkins and replaced him with Lawrence Connell, one of his top policy advisors and a retired Army colonel. In early March, just before Shulkin was fired, Missal issued another report warning that for years VAMC had "suffered a series of systemic and programmatic failures to consistently deliver timely and quality patient care." The report charged that there were staff shortages in several departments and that about $92 million in supplies and equipment were purchased over a two-year period without "proper controls to ensure the purchases were necessary and cost-effective." In April, Connell was out as temporary director following a dispute over "technical aspects" of his appointment, the VA said. In his latest report on VAMC, Missal made 25 recommendations for improving care. The VA said Monday that VAMC had implemented six of the 25 recommendations and was working to resolve the remaining 19.

New VA Secretary Pledges Cleanup Of Scandal-Plagued DC Hospital

 

[waltky]

Drug-Running, Lax Opioid Testing Found in VA's Residential Treatment Programs...

Drug-Running, Lax Opioid Testing Found in VA's Residential Treatment Programs
13 Sep 2018 - Poor oversight and failures in testing procedures led to two non-fatal fentanyl overdoses last year at a VA residential treatment program in upstate New York in which patients acquired the potent synthetic drug from another veteran at the facility, the VA's Office of Inspector General reported Wednesday.

In a similar report in July, the IG found that lax oversight and poor communication among staff were factors in the overdose death of a patient at another unidentified VA residential drug treatment program in 2015. That patient was found dead in a locked bathroom. An autopsy attributed the cause of death to a heroin overdose. In the case at the Bath, N.Y., VA Medical Center's treatment program, Matthew Helmer, 34, of Hyde Park, N.Y., a resident in drug treatment, was charged in October 2017 with felony counts of drug possession by federal prosecutors, who alleged that he was a "runner" for other veterans in the program, the local Star-Gazette newspaper reported. In court documents, a VA investigator said Helmer told him that "he knew that [patients] overdosed and were currently in the hospital," but was unaware of how they acquired the synthetic opioid fentanyl, the newspaper reported. Drug paraphernalia was found in Helmer's room and he acknowledged that heroin was his own drug of choice, the newspaper said. The IG's report focused on the 170-bed Domiciliary Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (DRRTP) in Bath, a town in New York's "southern tier" near the Pennsylvania border.

The DRRTP is part of the Bath VA Medical Center, the VA's oldest health care facility. The Bath facility was set up in 1865 as the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers returning from the Civil War. It currently serves about 13,000 veterans in the region. The IG's report noted that "the Veterans Health Administration does not require treatment programs to routinely test for illicit drugs, such as fentanyl, that are trending in the community." Following the two non-fatal fentanyl overdoses, the Bath center changed its urine drug screening (UDS) methods to include testing for the presence of fentanyl, but the tests went to "a non-VA laboratory with a turnaround time that compromised the timeliness of clinical intervention and overdose prevention," the IG report found. The result was that "the OIG determined that the facility's fiscal year 2017 positive UDS tracking data was inaccurate." The report also cited Bath center staff as saying that urine screening results were not properly recorded.

This undated photo provided by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office shows fentanyl pills.​

The residential treatment program then went to a system in which "color-coded stickers" were placed on the doors to the rooms of residents with a history of opioid use who were believed to be at high risk for suicide, the IG's report said. The sticker system was discussed at meetings, but "key staff reported being unaware of its use for residents at high risk for suicide," said the 37-page report by Dr. John D Daigh Jr., assistant Inspector General for Healthcare Inspections. The report also found that staff at the residential treatment program "did not have sufficient personal protective equipment or training to safely conduct contraband searches of residents' rooms and belongings." It cited several case studies at the Bath treatment program indicating that drugs including fentanyl were available for those who wanted them. In the case of a veteran identified as "Resident B," who had recently completed an in-patient program for opioid detoxification, a routine urine test taken 15 days after he became a Bath resident was positive for opioids. On the 19th day, a search of Resident B's room "produced a baggie of unknown pills, a small orange cap with unidentified powder in it, a knife with a blade longer than three inches, straight razor blades, a needle, and a packaging wrapper for suboxone," the report said.

Another urine test was positive for the presence of fentanyl. "On Day 20, Resident B declined discharge planning and was discharged irregularly," the case study said. In response to the IG's report, Dr. Joan McInerney, director of the VA's New York/New Jersey Health Care Network, concurred with the findings and pledged action to correct deficiencies. "The Veterans Integrated Service Network will conduct an evaluation of the Bath VA Medical Center processes for fentanyl test results, turnaround times and notification of results. Appropriate action will be taken based on the process evaluation result," McInerney said in a statement. In the case of the veteran's overdose death in 2015, the IG's report in July found that staff at the unidentified residential treatment program failed to take a number of steps that might have resulted in an intervention. The patient had refused, or claimed the inability to provide, a urine sample, the report said. In that circumstance, "staff were required to review the appropriateness of residential care to determine whether the patient should continue in the program and, if so, under what conditions. For this patient, no documented action was taken," the report said.

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[Doc7505]

Hmm...., this could never have happened under the fine leadership of Barack Obama. The blame should be Trump's even though this problem arose two years before he was elected.... Our mocha messiah can do nothing wrong.