Articles

VA staff plea: End ‘incompetence’

August 2, 2018

Veterans are still getting sub-standard care at VA hospitals.
Photo credit: @enterlinedesign/adobe.stock

Conditions at the Washington D.C. VA facility have continued to deteriorate even after the hospital director was removed and patient-care experts were sent to help more than a year ago.  In an article published today in USA Today, patients are in “imminent danger” writing:

“The Washington VA hospital made national headlines in April 2017 when the agency’s inspector general issued a rare emergency report because conditions at the medical center were putting veteran patients in imminent danger and VA managers who knew about the problems hadn’t fixed them.

The operating room was repeatedly running out of critical equipment, including vascular patches to seal blood vessels and ultrasound probes used to map blood flow. The facility had to borrow bone material for knee replacement surgeries. Investigators also found most of two dozen sterile storage areas were dirty at the hospital.

Top VA leaders quickly removed the hospital’s director, set up an incident command post and dispatched teams of experts to help the facility.

But problems continued.  

In June, the inspector general again found sterile storerooms that did not meet infection prevention or cleanliness criteria. In August, hospital staff reported running out of tubing for blood transfusions and oxygen. In September, the facility didn’t have staplers to close incisions for days.

Further,  “[i]nfection rates went up instead of down. In veterans’ blood streams. In their urinary tracts. Patient satisfaction went down instead of up. Employee satisfaction tanked.” This caused a group of anonymous employees to write to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie this week “asking him to step in and finally fix the hospital that serves tens of thousands of veterans in the nation’s capital.”

If you or a family member has been injured at a VA hospital, or any Army, Navy or Air Force hospital, we can help.  You may call us at 1-877-695-8757 (24/7), e-mail us at LawHelp@MilitaryMedicalMalpractice.com, or fill out the short form on the right side of this page. Free, confidential consultations.  There is no fee unless we get a recovery for you.

Source & to read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/02/conditions-washington-va-hospital-worsen-employees-want-help

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