The Veterans Affairs Administrative Investigations Board (AIB) released the rest of its three-part investigation into Marion’s troubled medical center, where as many as nineteen patients died as a result of poor medical care. As you might remember, the first part of their report, released last month, uncovered widespread mismanagement. The new information focuses on more flaws in the management structure and addresses the question of what needs to change. From the Southern,
First, the report finds that patient mortality levels increased significantly as early as April 2007, but the medical center failed to take sufficient action to find out why.
Second, basic support services were not in place to handle the expansion of the scope and complexity of surgeries, and there was no appropriate review process to monitor surgical outcomes.
Finally, the quality manager did not have enough control over the quality assurance process.
Dick Durbin and the VA Secretary will visit Marion this Saturday for a public meeting to address the issue.
“While part one of the AIB report shined a bright light on the dysfunctional former management at the Marion VA, parts two and three highlight the consequences of this broken leadership,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield.
“It is inexcusable that the VA's regional network was unaware of Marion’s widespread management problems, but that appears to be the case,” Durbin said. “The Marion VAMC needs qualified, long-term leadership to move on from the tragedies of last year. I look forward to discussing this with Secretary (Dr. James) Peake on Saturday (in his visit to Marion).”
The Senator has been instrumental in pressing this issue all along. He should be applauded for taking it so seriously. Let’s hope the town hall meeting with he and Peake leads to more public understanding and, most importantly, a safer medical center for our veterans.
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