EXPOSED: DC Veterans Hospital Patients in Imminent Danger
Patients at the Veterans Affairs facility in Washington D.C. are in imminent danger, according to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
A new report shows hospital staff members were insufficiently equipped to perform operations, with more than $150 million worth of equipment unaccounted for.
And over the last three years, there have been 194 reports that patient safety has been compromised because of insufficient equipment.
These reports include surgeons using expired equipment during operations, and canceling biopsies because the right tools were not available.
Just this week, a surgeon ran out of compression socks during surgery. That means that patient could be at increased risk for getting dangerous blood clots.
Meanwhile, 18 out of 25 sterile storage areas in the facility were found to be dirty, not sterile.
"It created an environment of care that was potentially dangerous to patients," said Michael Missal, inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This is just a preliminary report, but the OIG thought the problems were so severe they wanted to warn patients because of the "exigent nature" of these issues and the "lack of confidence in VHA adequately and timely fixing the root causes of these issues."
They are continuing their investigation into the facility.
For now, the VA has reassigned the facility's director to other administrative duties.
"It is completely unacceptable that veterans have been subjected to such dangerous conditions at the Washington, D.C. VA," Dan Caldwell, policy director for the Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), said.
"The VA did the right thing by relieving the DC director from his position," he continued. "But he's still being paid by taxpayers and under current law, it will be very difficult to terminate him."
United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin has asked Congress to pass legislation that would shorten the overall termination and appeals process for VA employees who are engaging in misconduct.
"These systemic and reoccurring fire drills will not stop until the Senate moves on the strong accountability measures currently on the table," Caldwell said.
