“Stroke patients at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center have received substandard care, including a failure to transfer them to another facility that could provide the necessary tests and treatment, according to a report released Thursday.
The report, by the VA’s inspector general, is the latest criticism of the New Hampshire facility. The criticisms first emerged after the Boston Globe reported on a whistleblower complaint filed by physicians alleging substandard care at the state’s only medical center for veterans. The physicians described a fly-infested operating room, surgical instruments that weren’t always sterilized and patients whose conditions were ignored.
The inspector general’s report, inspired by a 2010 complaint from a patient who later filed a tort claim, reviewed nearly two dozen patients who arrived with stroke symptoms in 2014 and 2015 and found they received inconsistent care. Among the problems was that patients weren’t always transferred promptly to a facility with expertise in treating stroke victims nor were they transferred to the closest acute-care facility.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, who requested the report in 2015, said it “emphasizes the need to improve services for our veterans” at the Manchester center and at centers around the country.”
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.militarytimes.com
More trouble at Manchester VA. It infuriates me that I’ve had more than one civilian tell me, veterans have “state of the art” facilities.
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