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SEN. DURBIN ASKS FEDERAL PROSECUTORS TO SCRUTINIZE

MARION VA HOSPITAL -- Says employees have made deeply

disturbing claims of flawed patient care, shoddy

oversight and possibly criminal behavior.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

For more complete background on the problems at the Marion, Ill. VA, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=marion&op=and

Story here... http://www.kentucky.com/471/story/221473.html

Story below:

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Durbin asks federal prosecutors to scrutinize Ill. VA hospital

By JIM SUHR
Associated Press Writer

ST. LOUIS -- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has asked federal prosecutors to investigate a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Illinois where he says employees have made "deeply disturbing" claims of flawed patient care, shoddy oversight and possibly criminal behavior.

The Illinois Democrat's request came after his office got a letter from a group identifying itself as 31 past and present workers at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Marion, Ill.

The letter claims that a doctor who lost his license in another state is practicing at the hospital, several medical providers at the site have not had their credentials verified, nurses have been told to shred important documents, and records of patients who have died at the hospital have been erased from computers.

The hospital already has been under VA scrutiny and mounting, Durbin-led political pressure in the wake of revelations that 10 patients died under the care of surgeon Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez during his roughly 20 months at the hospital.

Veizaga-Mendez resigned in mid-August, three days after a Kentucky patient bled to death after a gallbladder surgery performed by Veizaga-Mendez. Shortly afterward, the hospital suspended inpatient operations.

A second surgeon, who hospital officials have declined to name, also is under investigation.

In his letter Saturday to the U.S. Attorney's Office covering southern Illinois, Durbin insisted the allegations by the Marion VA workers to Durbin, five other senators and the VA "are extremely serious and deserve immediate investigation," especially "in light of the numerous alarming revelations about the Marion VAMC that have already come to light in recent weeks."

"The veterans and other employees who work at these facilities deserve to work in an environment where laws are respected and where the highest level of professionalism is maintained," Durbin wrote.

Given that the letter also describes "an environment of fear" for employees at the Marion VA, Durbin on Friday asked the VA in writing to remind the workers of their rights under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

Those employees "need to be assured that their openness and honesty about what happened and when and how events unfolded will not be held against them," according to Durbin's letter to VA acting Secretary Gordon Mansfield.

"A thorough investigation that allows investigators to truly get to the bottom of the situation rests largely on what people who have worked on the hospital can tell us," Durbin wrote to Mansfield.

In an e-mail to the AP by someone claiming to be among the 31 former and current employees - the sender was identified only as "Florence DoGooder" - the group insists "we are not a mob of 'nitpicking disgruntled employees,' 'goldbrickers,' troublemakers or people out to be vindictive and spiteful simply for the sake of doing so."

"What we stand for is competent, responsible leadership in management of the medical center," the e-mail read.

Messages left Sunday by The Associated Press at the Marion VA and with the national VA that oversees it were not immediately returned. Messages also were left with southern Illinois' U.S. Attorney's Office.

Before being hired in Illinois, the Bolivia-trained Veizaga-Mendez settled two malpractice lawsuits in Massachusetts, where he eventually surrendered his license, and was under investigation there on suspicion of malpractice in seven other cases, two of which ended in deaths.

Illinois regulators indefinitely have suspended Veizaga-Mendez's license.

Veizaga-Mendez has no listed telephone number in Illinois and Massachusetts and has been unreachable for comment. Telephone messages left with his attorney for the Illinois licensing matter, A. Jay Goldstein, have not been returned.

On Tuesday, the Senate's Committee on Veterans' Affairs, in response to questions about patient care in Marion, is to hold a hearing about the VA's hiring practices and quality controls. Among those Durbin expects to testify will be Gerald Cross, the VA's undersecretary for health.

The Marion hospital treats veterans from southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky.

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Larry Scott  --

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