Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Senator Chuck Grassley gave the following statement after the Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs released a report on a "Review of Quality of Care, Management, and Operations" of the Iowa City VA Health Care System. Grassley requested the report after employees and patients contacted his office with serious allegations at the facility that were cause for concern about the direction of the facility and its impact on patient care. Nearly 1,000 employees responded to the Inspector General's survey request. The Inspector General also conducted two site visits during its review. The Inspector General will be conducting follow-up inquiries in October to determine if improvement has been made.
The Inspector General's report can be found here. Grassley's original letter requesting a review can be found here.
"I appreciate the whistleblowers' willingness to come forward and alert me to these problems. Veterans deserve the highest quality of care, and we needed to make sure the high quality that we've come to know from the Iowa City VA hospital was still being delivered. The good news is that while the Iowa City VA facility has serious management problems to address, our veterans are receiving stellar care thanks to the hard work of the hospital's 'highly competent professional staff.' The key for the management is to immediately take steps to address the problems laid out by the Inspector General before patient care is impacted. There are several actions recommended in the report that the leaders of the hospital can take to help rectify the problems that were identified. I strongly suggest the senior management take the conclusion and recommendations of the review to heart and make substantive changes."
