VA Watchdog Stuff
cups, hats, shirts
click here to
support the site





Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases

Download your
free copy of the
2007 VA benefits
handbook here...

UPDATE: SITUATION AT MARION VA EXPLODES --

Employees speak out, more surgeons placed on

leave and VA sending in assessment team.
 

Marion VA

All of the problems at the Marion VA have finally come to a head...employees are speaking out, more surgeons have been placed on leave and now the VA is sending in an assessment team.

To say this is big news is an understatement.

Some background:  Sen. Durbin asks for federal investigation here... http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf110507-8.htm .  Employees begin speaking out here... http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfNOV07/nf110407-7.htm

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

We have three stories.  First is about more employees coming forward and speaking out.  Second is about more surgeons being placed on leave.  And, third is a VA press release about sending in an assessment team.

First story here... http://www.southernillinoisan.
com/articles/2007/11/05/top/22064808.txt

Story below: 

   Learn More about how to get a VA Loan today -- Click Here

-------------------------

Former VA employee voices his own concerns

BY JOHN D. HOMAN

the southern

MARION - A former Green Beret, who was employed for four years as a clerk with the Maintenance and Operations Division of the Environment of Care Department at the VA Medical Center in Marion, said the spike in patient deaths there is a horrendous concern, but not the only one.

"We former and current employees thought this was a good time to bring forward other problems at the facility that have existed for a considerable period of time," said Pete May of rural Vienna, a 56-year-old former Army master sergeant who was forced to retire his position at the hospital in 2004 for health reasons.

"Over the years, there have been many attempts made to approach and resolve these problems, but to no avail," May said. "Union grievances, Inspector General complaints and EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) suits have either been stifled at the facility level, or at VISN 15, the division headquarters in Kansas that has authority over Marion."

The problems run deep.

May alleged there has been long-term systematic harassment and persecution of employees in the facility's engineering or Environment of Care Department headed up by Director Michael Reed and Supervisor of Maintenance and Operations David Halm.

May added that there have been violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as sexual harassment, age and gender discrimination. He said the suspended VA director of operations, Robert Morrel, was acutely aware of such violations.

"Mr. Reed and Mr. Halm need to be relieved of any and all responsibilities and separated from employment at the facility if that department is ever going to be cleaned up; operate competently within federal regulations, laws and guidelines; and fulfill the department's primary responsibility - the proper physical operations and maintenance of the facility on a daily basis," May said.

Marion VA Medical Center spokeswoman Rebecca Shinneman said agency leaders have requested that The National Center for Organizational Development, an independent VA program, work with the Environment of Care employees regarding working conditions and organizational culture.

"NCOD is scheduled to be on site this week to begin meeting with employees," Shinneman said. "This program performs an impartial review, meets with all employees within Environment of Care and union members individually and in groups to identify concerns.

"We are investigating and evaluating. The final goal for everyone is for a safe, productive, and respectful environment for all our employees," Shinneman said. "We receive many compliments from patients and visitors about cleanliness, appearance and our grounds. This is due to the dedicated and caring engineering, housekeeping, grounds and environment of care staff."

'Troubling' investigation

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, said Monday that the ongoing investigation into the VA Medical Center in Marion is "one of the most troubling" issues he's ever encountered in all his years as a government servant.

"People have died because of mistakes that have been made," he said. "There are a lot of broken hearts over these deaths, many of which could have been avoided."

Durbin said he has developed a solid rapport with Gordon Mansfield, the acting secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, and is confident Mansfield will take appropriate steps to clear up the problems pending the outcome of the investigation performed by the Office of the Inspector General.

"He wants to know the truth," Durbin said. "And he knows the whole story's not out. He's assured me that any current employee who speaks out publicly about the VA will be protected. And I will stand by them, too. Three or four people have contacted my office directly and told us some troubling stories, but they're afraid to say too much for fear of getting fired."

Durbin said one of the most recent claims is that certain VA department heads ordered patient records changed or destroyed at Marion in an effort cover up mistakes.

"If those allegations are correct, we're talking criminal charges," the senator said.

john.homan@thesouthern.com  / 351-5805

-------------------------

Second story here... http://www.jg-tc.com/
articles/2007/11/06/ap-state-il/d8sodkr82.txt

Story below:

-------------------------

VA says more Marion surgeons placed on leave; Durbin pledges legislation

By JIM SUHR

Sen. Dick Durbin pledged Tuesday to push federal legislation to reform hiring practices at Veterans Affairs hospitals nationwide after the VA revealed three more doctors have been placed on leave by an Illinois site that already has stopped performing surgeries.

VA officials who testified Tuesday before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs did not offer specifics about the three surgeons recently placed on leave at the VA in Marion, Ill.

Scrutiny in Marion has mushroomed since August, when Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez resigned three days after a Kentucky man bled to death following gallbladder surgery the surgeon performed.

Shortly afterward, that hospital suspended inpatient operations because of a spike in post-surgical deaths and reassigned or placed on leave four officials, including the chief of surgery.

The VA says 10 patients died under the care of Veizaga-Mendez, whose Illinois license was indefinitely suspended last month by regulators.

News of the actions involving three more surgeons "is unfortunately a developing pattern of problems of the surgical staff at the Marion VA," Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told The Associated Press after being allowed to take part in the Senate hearing even though he isn't on the panel. "Clearly, this has gone beyond one doctor."

Durbin also said he was struck by the VA's disclosure Tuesday that, since the troubles surfaced in Marion, it has checked the credentials of some 56,000 medical professionals across the VA system and culled 17,000 for additional review.

"That's a lot _ that's about a third," Durbin told the AP. Some of the issues may be purely technical, Durbin acknowledged, "so I don't want to overstate it."

Confronted publicly Tuesday for the first time about the Marion matter, VA administrators deflected the panel's prodding for many specifics about Veizaga-Mendez, citing an unfolding VA Inspector General's probe of the doctor's 20 months at the Marion VA and how he ever got hired there in January 2006.

VA officials insisted the department followed a thorough credentialing process in vetting Veizaga-Mendez. The VA generally verifies information supplied by prospective doctors at any of its some 150 U.S. medical centers through national practitioner databanks and checks for disciplinary alerts by the Federation of State Medical Boards, Gerald Cross, the VA's chief deputy undersecretary for health, told the panel. The VA also checks doctors' references.

Applicant doctors also must be licensed in at least one state; when hired in Marion, Veizaga-Mendez had valid, unrestricted licenses in Massachusetts and Illinois. He also has agreed to stop practicing in Massachusetts.

"I think I can honestly say we have a credentialing system at the VA that is the envy of the health-care industry," added Kate Enchelmayer, a quality standards chief for the Veterans' Health Administration.

Neither Cross nor Enchelmayer revealed whether they were aware that Veizaga-Mendez, before being hired in Marion, had made payouts in two Massachusetts malpractice suits and was under investigation there on suspicion of botching seven cases, two of which ended in deaths.

But Cross suggested there was little reason not to hire Veizaga-Mendez, given his glowing letters of recommendation, his unrestricted licenses and three decades of experience.

When questions arose about prospects that Veizaga-Mendez may have botched surgeries in Marion, Cross insisted the VA took "dramatic, swift, definitive action based on the information we had."

"I'd be very impressed if anyone could have done it faster," Cross testified. "We thought we had enough concern, and we did it to make sure our patients (in Marion) were protected."

Durbin has asked federal prosecutors to investigate the Marion VA, saying employees have made "deeply disturbing" claims of flawed patient care, shoddy oversight and possibly criminal behavior including document-shredding since Veizaga-Mendez's departure.

Veizaga-Mendez has no listed telephone number in Illinois and Massachusetts and has been unreachable for comment.

Durbin said he plans to address VA hiring weaknesses with legislation aimed at attracting "good doctors and will assure a level of scrutiny, accountability and review throughout the VA medical system."

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

-------------------------

VA press release here... http://www.
vawatchdog.org/07/vap07/vap110607-3.htm

Press release below:

-------------------------

VA Deploying Assessment Team to Marion Medical Center

November 6, 2007

Report To Supplement Ongoing Investigation

WASHINGTON – A multi-disciplinary assessment team will be sent to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Marion, Ill., Hospital to review recent allegations made by hospital employees relating to operations at the facility, the Department announced today.

The team will assess personnel practices and procedures at the facility; review issues related to equal employment opportunity; assess how well employees and managers are communicating; and evaluate how well the facility is implementing hiring processes and procedures.

“VA is committed to providing quality care to veterans,” said Gordon H. Mansfield, Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “We are also committed to ensuring all laws related to federal employees are fully enforced. The assessment team will make certain we are doing what’s right for both veterans and VA employees.”

The Assessment Team will include experts from human resources, employee and labor relations experts; a representative from VHA’s National Center for Organizational Development; a representative from VA’s Office of General Counsel; an environment of care expert; an Office of Resolution Management representative; and VA leaders and managers from other health care facilities. The team is expected to be on-site within one week and composed of seven to 10 members.

Team members will also assess the impact of issues that have already been raised at Marion on the manner in which care is delivered to veterans at the hospital, and will educate employees about issues they have raised concerning possible retaliation.

Upon completion of their review, team members will provide recommendations for improvements at the facility to Acting Secretary Mansfield. They will also suggest follow-up activities to ensure their recommendations are fully implemented.

VA began its review of issues at Marion as a result of a June 2007 statistical analysis by its National Surgical Quality Improvement Program which indicated higher levels of mortality than expected among patients at the facility over a six month time frame. As a result, VA’s Office of the Medical Inspector conducted an on-site review of the facility to determine if community standards of care were met for certain patients who underwent surgery there between October 2005 and September 2007. This clinical review is ongoing.

VA’s Office of the Inspector General is also conducting an investigation at the request of Department leadership, which includes, but is not limited to, a review of surgical care at the hospital over the last 12 months. The Inspector General’s review of Marion’s quality of care is also ongoing, and the office will carefully review all relevant information to include the assessment team’s report to see if the information the team gathers will shed light or add additional information to the Inspector General’s investigation.

-------------------------

Larry Scott  --

Don't forget to read all of today's VA News Flashes (click here)

Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage

email Larry

(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page)

VA Watchdog Stuff
cups, hats, shirts
click here to
support the site