IG criticizes chief at center hit by COVID

The leader of a veterans’ care center in Massachusetts where 76 veterans died after contracting the coronavirus in the spring of 2020 lacked both the leadership skills and the temperament to run such a facility when he was hired in 2016, according to a state Inspector General’s report released Friday.

The 91-page report, which covers the period from May 2016 until February 2020 — just before the pandemic struck with full force — was also critical of the process that led to the hiring of Bennett Walsh as superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home and of state oversight of the home.

The investigation that led to the report started in 2019 in response to pre-pandemic complaints about Walsh, who resigned in October 2020 as he faced criminal charges over his handling of one of the deadliest known COVID-19 outbreaks at a long-term care facility in the U.S. Those charges were dismissed last year.

“Superintendent Walsh did not have and did not develop the leadership capacity or temperament for the role of superintendent,” a summary of the report said. “He created an unprofessional and negative work environment, retaliated against employees he deemed disloyal, demonstrated a lack of engagement in the home’s operations and circumvented his chain of command.”

Walsh, a former Marine, had no supervisory experience in a health care setting or skilled nursing facility when he was hired, although according to state law, that was not required of the home’s superintendent at the time.

The report acknowledges that Walsh inherited some problems with the 240-bed facility when he was appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2016, including staffing issues, tension with employee unions and leadership vacancies.