After 207 days on administrative leave, Sharon Helman, the former director of the Phoenix VA hospital has finally been kicked to the curb. Helman presided over a corrupt system that the Office of the Inspector General found that neglected veterans waiting for their treatment, yet taxpayers continued all of this time to pay for her comfortable lifestyle for a few more months. from our friends at Concerned Veterans for America;
Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, issued the following statement in reaction to Helman’s termination:
“Good riddance.
“Through our VA Accountability Project, Concerned Veterans for America has fought to hold failing bureaucrats who have endangered the lives of America’s veterans like Sharon Helman accountable for their actions. While we are pleased that Ms. Helman has finally been fired, we are frustrated that it took 207 days to happen. The fact that it took so long to fire someone responsible for such grave wrongdoings speaks volumes about the culture at the Department of Veterans Affairs—an agency infected by corruption and void of transparency and accountability.
“Under her direction, employees at the Phoenix VA hospital were instructed to systematically falsify patient records and wait time data, and anyone who did not comply with these practices was punished. As a result of this manipulation and deceit, veterans—men and women who fought to protect our country so people like Sharon Helman can live free—died while Ms. Helman collected tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses and a six-figure salary.
“Sharon Helman is the poster child for VA dysfunction. Had she done the same thing in the private healthcare sector, she’d be fired immediately and probably face criminal charges. We hope that Ms. Helman’s termination is a signal that the Department of Veterans Affairs will begin to return to its mission of serving veterans, rather than protecting selfish bureaucrats only interested in serving themselves.”
Firing Helman doesn’t fix the problems at the VA, but it’s a good first tiny little step.
If I was as incompetent at my job as she was at hers, I would have been fired in 2.07 seconds.
Good old bureaucracy.
Meteorologists point at her and laugh.
All Points Logistics employees and executive staff point at her and laugh.
Word.
They will never fix anything until they completely clean house in the HR department of the VA. They’ll just go right back to hiring the same type of people to work there.
Do not stop here.
Just change the lyrics to…..
“Kick out Helman and bring in the Best.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwrEe2zPeCM
Helman must have been an outsider, someone whose allegiance was anywhere but to Veterans. No, Helman was a career VA employee. She began working for the VA as a in San Diego as a GS-4 Program Specialist in June 1990. Fifteen years later, she was an associate director in Roseburg, Oregon. She moved up and out in 2007 when she became the director of a VA facility in Walla Walla, Washington. She hardly had time to hang pictures on her wall when she relocated again to Spokane where she took the director’s chair. Again, before she could unpack, she was put in charge of the largest VA facility in Illinois. A tad over two years later, in early 2012, she was in charge of the Phoenix VA. The shooting star is no more. At 43, she needs a job.
Sounds rather suspicious doesn’t it. I’d wager that if one were to go back and investigate all the facilities she headed one would find the same practices going on as at Phoenix. Maybe the VA was sending her form one “troubled” facility to the next to get the numbers right.
One other fleeting thought….
Chrome.
Trailer Hitch.
Yeah, it certainly has me wondering if there isn’t a trail of tears there. But I’m not at all certain anyone wants to pick up any rocks and look under them any longer.
This just seems apropos here:
With apologies:
We got the bubble headed
Bleached blonde
Who leaves at five
She can tell you how to hide lists
With a gleam in her eye
It’s interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry
GS-4 to SES in 15-17 years? I know plenty of folks in DC who start out as 13s and are glad to be 15s in 20 years.
When does her trial start? Oh wait…..
Splash. Out.
Oh wait – there is SECDEF position open…
I was going to use that one.
207 days of collecting a check while her leave balances rolled up and up. Bet she lands on her feet somewhere, probably a “consulting firm” that advises the VA.
Way past “bout time!”.
First Holder, then Hagel, then Hellman. Looks like Obama is working through the Letter “H” in his housecleaning Rolodex.
As I said a billion times before, the whole system is broken, and each separate entity in each state is broken. Getting rid of the big head honcho isn’t going to fix a huge soup sandwich of corruption across the country.