- Recent revelations just the tip of the
iceberg
A number of issues
have surfaced, lately, concerning our local Department of Veterans Affairs
Medical Center in Northport, NY. The most recent of which has been the controversy
and apparent cover-up of the closing down of all the Operating Suites at the
Medical Center. I was hearing rumors, then being told by reliable sources
inside the Hospital, about the true nature of the closings and the true nature
of the reason for the closings. The “management” would have us all believe that
miniscule particles of rust were occasionally emerging from the climate control
air ducting in the ceilings. A plausibly deniable reason was given for this phenomenon
and all further communication went oddly silent. Fortunately for our Veteran
Community, this didn’t last too long before the local Press and our local
Congressmen got a hold of it. Once that hit the fan, the “problem” was remedied in the matter of days; after
languishing in limbo for four months. What most of the Veterans thought was
actually coming out of those ceiling vents, black mold, has been corroborated
by the same reliable sources.
It hurts me to say
that since that whole fiasco, I have been made aware of some more equally (if
not more) damaging information regarding the “management” of this Medical
Center. I have been pulled aside and given a detailed insight to other deeds of
mismanagement, which, in my opinion, may
border on illegal and criminal. I have corroborated these tidbits of
information with other sources, and to a person, what were just rumors have
been confirmed as standard operating procedure here at the Northport VAMC. I
have also been directed, as a Veteran stakeholder, to bring these allegations
and/or practices to the attention of the United States Office of Special
Counsel. From what I have been told, the Veterans Affairs Office of the
Inspector General is singing the Company tune, drinking the Kool-Aide, and is
completely incompetent in dealing with type and amount of corruption inside
this Bureaucracy. The Office of Special Counsel is primarily a layer of
protection for governmental whistleblowers. If this is the case, consider me a
governmental whistleblower.
v Medical
Department Heads and Senior Staff have been either showing up for work visibly
intoxicated, or becoming so during the workday. I’m sure CARF, the nonprofit accreditor of health and human services
(http://www.carf.org/home/), the
Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) (https://www.cms.gov/),
and the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP) ( http://www.hfap.org/) would be very interested in looking into this.
And, how about the local and National Press; just to name a few......
v The
aforementioned may be unethical at many levels, but this next situation has to
border on criminal. I have been told that there are at least a handful of
medical Doctors who are being paid a full-time salary at the VAMC, Northport,
and are not required to show up for work. Indeed, they are enjoying the fruits
of private practice, and earning a full paycheck from that source. Forget about
Hospital Accreditation Agencies, I have a sneaking suspicion that the United
States Judicial System might be very interested in taking long, hard look at
these allegations.
As it is said in
the business, “Watch this space!”
As the title
mentions, this is just the tip of what may be a very large iceberg. It seems,
the deeper you dig into the inner workings of our Veterans health care system,
the more devastating unethical and criminal practices you find. There are the
obvious short-term solutions to these problems, but what is needed is a
complete overhaul and long-term solution to what is ailing our Veterans’ National
health care system under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. I have looked
at this situation for the past five years. I have tried to come up with the
root cause of the problems, and the long-term solution that will right this
ship. After all, our Nation’s Veterans are depending on a health care system
that works as advertised and promised; they deserve no less for the service
they have provided us all.
What I think I have
discovered is that the very structure of the Department of Veterans Affairs, especially the Veterans Health Administration
(VHA), is what leads to a certain bureaucratic culture that necessarily breeds
incompetence, unethical behaviors, arrogance and indifference toward its
clientele. I don’t want to make this a blanket condemnation of each and every
VA employee, but I have to say, based on observation, these personnel
characteristics seem to run deep throughout the entire system.
A primary premise
in coming up with a cure is the undeniable fact that the vast majority of this
Nation’s Veterans do not feel comfortable, or understood, when dealing with
private sector medical and mental health care. So, instead of trashing the
entire system, let’s try to reorganize this Department in such a way that will
enable it to properly and efficiently serve our Veterans. We do not need to
reinvent the wheel; all the necessary parts already exist. A proper reshuffling
of the deck is something that can realistically be done, and done in a
relatively short period of time. Once I have gotten a foothold in Congress with
my Mandatory Military Separation Transition Program (MMSTP), I am going to
focus full-time on putting together a blueprint for reorganizing the Department
of Veterans Affairs. If you can change the structure, you can change the
culture. Hey, somebody has to do it!
My UN-healthevet
No comments:
Post a Comment