Editorial: Hampton VA Medical Center on watch to implement needed changes
It’s hard not to be skeptical when the official spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs says the VA plans to “fully implement” by December all recommendations in a recent highly critical report about the Hampton VA Medical Center.
After all, that report followed more than a decade of concerning news about the Hampton center, which serves veterans in southeastern Virginia, including Hampton Roads, and northeastern North Carolina.
Will the changes really be in place? And will they solve the center’s chronic problems?
Granted, the center has reduced substantially the amount of time patients must wait for appointments since it had one of the worst records in the country during the 2014 scandal about lengthy wait times at VA facilities. Back then, new patients needing appointments in some specialties at Hampton had to wait more than 90 days — delays that in extreme cases may have contributed to patient deaths.
Not all problems have been solved, and serious new ones have come to light. The recent report from the VA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) identified a number of problems at the center, some of which could endanger patients.
The OIG had been looking into problems at the Hampton center for some time, including inadequate care that delayed the diagnosis and treatment of a veteran who died of cancer.
Earlier this year, a separate investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs prompted major personnel changes at the Hampton center, including the departure of the director, chief of staff and chief of surgery. The committee opened its investigation, members said, after receiving numerous complaints about the quality of surgery.
Both the House committee and the OIG found serious problems in the way the center oversaw and dealt with problems in patients’ treatment. Some of the report may sound dry and bureaucratic, but when critical health care is involved, adherence to best practices, strong oversight, transparency and consequences for failure to follow standard procedures are essential.
As the House committee investigated complaints, its members heard “credible,” troubling reports from members of the center’s staff. There were allegations of covering up problems rather than trying to correct them, and retaliation against professionals at the center who voiced concerns.
In short, although wait times for appointments have improved, the Hampton center still has a lot to fix. It has much work to do before it is providing veterans in this part of Virginia and North Carolina the high-quality medical care they have earned.
Terrence Hayes, the spokesman for the VA, said that a new team is meeting regularly with the goal of making the OIG’s recommended changes reality by the end of this year. The Hampton center already has a new reporting tool to track data such as clinical care, suspensions and changes in medical privileges, evaluations and state board reports. The surgery department now has monthly patient-risk meetings.
The center’s new acting director took over early this month. Walt Dannenberg had been director of the Long Beach VA Medical Center in California for seven years before coming to Hampton.
With reforms in the works, and new leadership, the Hampton center may be ready, at last, to become the top-quality medical facility our veterans deserve.
It’s understandable if the center’s troubled history gives rise to thoughts of, “We’ll believe there’s real change when we see it.”
But after intense scrutiny in recent years, and with new leaders and procedures in place, there is reason to hope that the center really will have all the recommended changes in place by year’s end — and that they will be the right approach to reform.
The OIG, Congress and veterans’ advocates should continue to monitor what’s happening at the Hampton medical facility and others across the nation. They should continue to press for adequate funding.
Veterans volunteered to serve our country, putting their lives on the line if necessary. Taking good care of their health after their service is simply part of what we owe them.
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