Ex-Holyoke boss testifies in D.C.
Barabani seeks reforms for virus-ravaged facility
Advocates took the needs of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home straight to Capitol Hill on Wednesday — holding up the devastating coronavirus outbreak at the facility that killed 76 veterans as reason for more oversight and funding for the state-run homes.
The Holyoke tragedy took center stage as U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., and former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Superintendent Paul Barabani testified during a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee hearing on oversight of state veterans’ homes amid the pandemic.
Barabani, who retired in 2016 after he felt the state wasn’t addressing the facility’s needs, told lawmakers and Trump administration officials that he believed proper funding and staffing at the home could have saved lives.
“I needed the VA’s help to influence the state’s decision makers to provide funds for proper staffing levels, and the renovation of the home to ensure safe, quality veteran care,” Barabani said. “I often ask myself: ‘What if they had listened?’ … How many of these deaths could have been prevented?”
Barabani, who now heads the Holyoke Soldiers Home Coalition advocacy group, joined Neal in calling for a $116 million renovation that would bolster the facility’s bed capacity, as well as to establish a new adult day care center.
They also slammed the inequitable distribution of resources between the Holyoke facility and its Chelsea counterpart. Neal pledged more federal aid “so the state can move forward to rebuild the facilities and create a more transparent, healthy environment for our veterans and those who care for them.”
At least 40,000 residents of long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19 nationwide, according to subcommittee chairwoman U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif. And she said the pandemic has shown “starkly different” levels of care between state-run veterans’ homes and the community living centers owned and operated directly by the VA.
Lawmakers and administration officials wrestled Wednesday with “where the buck stops” in terms of overseeing the long-term care centers that fall under the VA but whose day-to-day operations are monitored by states.
“I think that there has to be a clear, delineated explanation of responsibilities,” Neal told press after the hearing.
Barabani proposed an annual survey to help guide VA resources to soldiers’ homes. And he reiterated that long-term care facilities would be better overseen by the state Department of Public Health than the Department of Veterans’ Services.
Massachusetts officials are pushing stronger oversight of the Holyoke facility after a blistering report on an independent investigation into the coronavirus outbreak found leadership there made “utterly baffling” decisions in veterans’ care. Barabani on Wednesday raised issues with “misrepresentations” in the report by former federal prosecutor Mark W. Pearlstein, recommendations in which formed the basis of reform legislation filed by Gov. Charlie Baker.
State and federal investigations into the facility are ongoing. And concerns about reinfection are swirling after a clinically recovered veteran tested positive for the virus this week.