Category: Veterans’ Affairs Department

The Associated Press reports that VA medical and hospital administrative personnel are facing scrutiny because some controlled substances from Veteran facilities are ending up on the street rather than being used for the treatment of the nation’s military veterans;

It’s not clear if the problem is worse at the VA than at private facilities, where medical experts and law enforcement officials say drug theft is also increasingly common in a time of widespread opioid abuse in the U.S. But the VA gets special scrutiny from lawmakers and the public, given Americans’ esteem for ex-servicemembers served by the agency and because of past problems at the VA, especially a 2014 wait-time scandal in which some patients died.

“Those VA employees who are entrusted with serving our nation’s wounded, ill and injured veterans must be held to a higher standard,” said Joe Davis, spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars.

[…]

Reported incidents of drug losses or theft at federal hospitals jumped from 272 in 2009 to 2,926 in 2015, before dipping to 2,457 last year, according to DEA data obtained by AP. “Federal hospitals” include the VA’s more than 1,100 facilities as well as seven correctional hospitals and roughly 20 hospitals serving Indian tribes.

The inspector general’s office estimates there are nearly 100 open criminal probes involving theft or loss of VA controlled substances.

Of course, it’s just one more thing for newly confirmed VA Secretary David Shulkin as he assumes control of the system.

Thanks to OC for the link.

Braulio Castillo was sentenced to life in prison last summer for the murder of his estranged wife, Michelle a few years ago. He broke into her home and strangled her while their children were asleep just down the hallway. Before that, he founded Signet Computers (renamed Strong Castle in 2013) doing so with his status as a service-disabled veteran. He became famous as the target of Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth’s ire in a House Committee investigation into his status as a service-connected disabled veteran.

See, while attending the US Military Academy Preparatory School, he injured his foot during orienteering training and left the program. If he hadn’t been injured, he wouldn’t have even been considered a veteran. Even though he played football at the University of San Diego the following year, he still had that status as an injured veteran 27 years later. It was more about the system that would allow it, than it was about Castillo, and I noticed that Duckworth didn’t do anything about the system while she was at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs or in Congress, so whose fault is it really?

I don’t think his records were ever called into question, but here they are anyway;

Someone sends us a link dated late last year from KSHB in Kansas City. It tells the story of Mark Wisner who was employed by the Veterans’ Affairs Department and admitted to at least one case of “inappropriately touching” a veteran in his care;

In September, Sen. Jerry Moran questioned VA Secretary Robert McDonald on the handling of Wisner’s case. McDonald maintained Wisner resigned.

An internal e-mail from the VA explains how an investigation on Wisner was opened on May 19, 2014.

During the course of that investigation, Wisner admitted to inappropriately touching at least one patient. That’s when the investigation was expanded, and investigators reached out to the patients he treated over the prior year.

Before the investigation was complete, Wisner filed for retirement and was granted it officially, on June 30, 2014. He is still receiving federal payment and pension as a retiree.

“I can’t just drive up to Washington and start clunking heads together, because I know that’s what everyone wants to do. But wake up. Somebody please wake up,” said [25-year-old Jake Carlson, who received a Purple Heart for his service].

The VA seems to be the swamp that most needs draining.

Military Times reports that Trump’s nomination to head the Veterans’ Affairs Department is Dr David Shulkin, currently the VA Under Secretary for Health since June 2015.

“He’s fantastic,” Trump said. “He will do a truly great job. One of the commitments I made is that we’re going to straighten out the whole situation for veterans. Our veterans have been treated horribly … I think you’ll be very impressed with David and the job he does.”

In a statement released by Trump’s transition team, Shulkin called the nomination an honor.

“President-elect Trump’s commitment to caring for our veterans is unquestionable, and he is eager to support the best practices for care and provide our Veterans Affairs’ teams with the resources they need to improve health outcomes,” he said.

“We are both eager to begin reforming the areas in our Veterans Affairs system that need critical attention, and do it in a swift, thoughtful and responsible way.”

Yeah, well, if there is an agency of the Executive Department that doesn’t need a promotion from within, it’s the VA. I’d have to think that the cultural reform the agency needs isn’t going to happen with a hold over appointment.

According to the Military Times, Florida businessman Luis Quinonez and Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove have removed themselves from consideration as Trump’s candidate to run the troubled Veterans’ Affairs Department.

Both men had met with the president-elect several times about overseeing the agency, which employs about 365,000 people and has an annual budget nearing $180 billion. Trump announced nominees to lead nearly every other major government department before the end of last year.

The president-elect has described the current department as broken and vowed to massively expand private care options for veterans, root out waste within veterans programs and restore public confidence in a department still reeling from the 2014 wait times scandal.

He also promised to enact many of those changes within his first 100 days in office. Transition teams have been laying the groundwork for those reforms for weeks, but it’s unclear how far that work can progress without a new VA secretary.

Fox News host Pete Hegseth and former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown remain in consideration for the post. Miltary Times also says that “Multiple groups” have endorsed keeping Bob McDonald on the job after the Obama Administration turns out the lights. The only groups that I’ve heard express that opinion are IAVA and VoteVets – two organizations that are more concerned with liberal politics than anything that could help veterans.

I’m pretty sure that the search for a secretary is so difficult is because the agency is not going to change from one that supports it’s employees at the expense of their clientele. No one who expects to be successful will want to wade into that morass.

Several of you have sent us links to the story of an unnamed veteran who died at the Tampa VA hospital and the body was left unattended for nine hours in a shower;

The investigation found that once the veteran died, hospice staff members requested a staffer known as a “transporter” to get the body moved to the morgue.

The transporter told them to follow proper procedures and notify dispatchers, but that request was never made, so nobody showed up to take the body away.

Instead, it was moved to a hallway in the hospice and then to the shower room where it was unattended for more than nine hours.

Some hospice staff “demonstrated a lack of concern, attention and respect” for the veteran, according to the investigative report.

My problem with the story is that it’s indicative of a culture that can always find a way to not do their jobs. The “transporter” found it perfectly reasonable to neglect his duties and walk away from a dead veteran. When the call from a dispatcher never came, why didn’t he rectify the situation? That’s common among government workers, though. They can always find a reason to NOT do their jobs, and it’s much less common for them to err on the side of their constituency. They deny folks basic human dignity instead of doing what anyone else would do without prompting from rules and regulations.