From Military.com:
“Florida VA Denied Dying
Veteran Emergency Care Because Staff Couldn't Confirm His Service”
Emergency room staff at a
Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Florida violated policy by refusing
to care for a veteran dying of heart failure because they could not confirm his
military service, the VA's watchdog said in a new report this week. The
unidentified 60-year-old man died 10 hours later after being taken to a
different hospital. The VA inspector general faulted staff at the Malcom
Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville for having "wasted critical
time" by continuing to try to identify the man and not prioritizing
immediate medical treatment. "Emergency Department nurses dismissed the
reported criticality of the patient's condition based on their own inaccurate
visual assessment of the patient and the primary focus on verifying the
patient's eligibility status," the inspector general, or IG, said in a
report released Tuesday. While facility leaders have taken actions to address
issues identified in an initial investigation, the IG warned that "there
continues to be a delay in the provision of emergency care to patients in the
Emergency Department due to inefficient registration processes and practices."
The incident the report focused
on happened in summer 2020, but the IG said that during the course of its
investigation it discovered "similar patient incidents" in 2019. The
man in the summer 2020 incident had previously been treated at the same VA
medical center for heart issues that spring. When a neighbor found the man
unresponsive that summer, they called an ambulance and told the emergency
responders that he had recently been discharged from a VA hospital.
En route to the VA, the ambulance
personnel notified hospital staff of the man's critical condition and gave them
what little identifying information they had, including his initials and
contact information for a family member, but told dispatchers they could not
get any more identification since the patient was unconscious. But when the
ambulance arrived, nurses and an administrator requested more identifying
information. After waiting in the ambulance bay "for five to 10
minutes," the emergency responders asked whether they should take the man
to another hospital, and the VA staff replied "yes," according to the
IG report.
Under federal law, hospitals with
emergency departments are required to "to provide medical screening
examinations and stabilizing treatment to patients with emergency medical
conditions." The VA isn't formally subject to that law, but its policy is
still to comply with it and provide "emergency care to veterans, staff and
other non-veterans who experience a medical emergency while in or near a VA facility,"
according to the IG report. Because of the incident, the IG questioned
"nurses' competence to treat patients seeking emergency care" and
found "deficiencies in the completion, validation, and oversight of
Emergency Department nursing competencies and competency folders." Further,
the facility director decided not to fire anyone over the incident and instead
issued written warnings, which "potentially compromised patient safety in
the Emergency Department," the IG added.
The IG issued several
recommendations, including that the facility "prioritize patient care
before patient eligibility status" and ensure that nurses' training is up
to date and complete. The IG also recommended an internal review to determine whether
any further disciplinary action is warranted and following through on several
action plans that stemmed from the incident. In a response included in the
report, the facility pledged to follow all the recommendations. In a written
statement Wednesday, a spokesperson for the North Florida/South Georgia
Veterans Health System said it "values the recommendations of the VA's
Office of Inspector General." "We embrace high reliability and are
committed to zero harm for our patients. As outlined in the response, action
plans have been completed or are currently under implementation,"
spokesperson Melanie Thomas said. "We remain dedicated to honoring our
Nation's Veterans by ensuring a safe environment and delivering exceptional
health care through continuously improving our standards."
^ This is just plain disgusting
and all the Nurses, Staff and Doctors involved in kicking this dying Man
(whether he was a Veteran or not) to another Hospital should lose their jobs
and not be allowed to work in the medical field ever again. They are clearly
heartless and care more about themselves then about taking care of the sick and
dying. ^
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