Lawmakers “shocked” by report on possible cases of HIV exposure at VA hospitals.
Shocking and tragic and you wonder how systems break down within a hospital to lead to these types of problems.
Having both worked and received care at VA hospitals in the past I have always found decent health care once you obtain access to the system and waited for an appointment.
Our veterans deserve better.
The CBS Evening News (6/16, story 5, 2:35, Glor) reported, “Capitol Hill is famous for holding hearings, but rarely have members of Congress been as shocked as they were” Tuesday, when “they got the results of a new report with this startling headline: More than 10,000 veterans who went in for checkups at several Southeast VA hospitals may have been exposed to HIV or other blood diseases.” According to CBS, over “10,000 veterans have now received letters warning them that the equipment the VA used for their colonoscopies may not have been properly sterilized. So far, six of those” vets “have tested positive for HIV, 13 for hepatitis B, and 34 for hepatitis C.”
According to the AP (6/16, Evans), “lawmakers sharply criticized” the VA “on Tuesday about why a national scare over botched colonoscopies earlier this year didn’t prompt stronger safeguards at the agency’s medical centers.” VA officials “apologized for the continued weaknesses and told a House subcommittee they would do better,” while VA Secretary Eric Shinseki “said he would be disciplining staffers. The strong reaction came as the agency’s inspector general reported that fewer than half of VA facilities selected for surprise inspections last month had proper training and guidelines in place. That was months after the VA launched a nationwide safety campaign over the discovery of errors” at three facilities.
USA Today (6/17, Theobald) adds, “House lawmakers blasted” VA “officials on Tuesday after hearing testimony that the agency still wasn’t following procedures for handling endoscopes, months after discovering that the improperly cleaned instruments may have exposed veterans to hepatitis and HIV. ‘I’m outraged that any of our nation’s heroes were potentially infected or that they even have to worry about the possibility,’ said” US Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), “who is chairman” of the House’s Veterans Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
McClatchy (6/17, Clark) reports, “Several employees” at the VA hospital in Miami “are likely to be disciplined for failing to detect problems with improperly sterilized medical equipment in a case that’s enraged members of Congress. The disclosure of the potential punishments came” as federal “lawmakers chided” the VA “for not moving faster to address mistakes that may have exposed thousands of veterans to HIV and hepatitis.”
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