In March, USA Today called attention to 140 VA healthcare investigations that had not been publicly reported, sweeping under the rug problems and issues veterans have faced with the department dating back to 2006.
The article didn’t specify the nature of issues covered by these investigations, but found they each pertained to matters of VA medical care provided to veterans or complaints of clinical misconduct.
After a period of time, the VA complied with USA Today’s request and released these 140 reports, revealing occasions where veterans were mistreated at VA healthcare centers across America or the administration blatantly failed. In many of these cases, VA officials did not make the reports public to give the issues the chance to resolve on their own.
Of the 140 cases not reported, mistreatment of veterans ranged from one’s face being set on fire during surgery to missed diagnoses to questionable prescribing methods for narcotics. There were also instances of mismanaged funds and personnel problems that affected veteran patients. Over 50% of the reports were not simple misunderstandings, but substantiated claims.
While the VA Inspector General’s criteria for determining which reports to make public has appeared inconsistent, USA Today said that the interim VA inspector general, Richard Griffin, has expressed that reports have been and will continue to be released according to a set standard.
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