Missed case count at VA rises to 14

Parks: Remaining cases to be checked by end of year

FAYETTEVILLE — The pathology report was wrong in 14 of 21,591 cases, according to an ongoing review of an impaired pathologist’s work at the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks.

There are 12,215 cases left to be checked, although the patients believed to face the highest risks from a missed diagnosis were reviewed first, system administrators said Monday. The town hall meeting was the fourth since the June 18 news conference announcing the problem.

Four veterans among those 14 confirmed, severe cases have died, although whether the missed diagnosis contributed to those deaths is still under review, administrators of the system said after the town hall.

The review is on schedule to finish by the end of the year, said Kelvin Parks, who was interim administrator of the system when the problem was found. Parks served as interim administrator for more than eight months, as long as U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs rules allow. He remains in charge of the pathology review after being replaced this month as interim director. Parks is associate medical center director, a position comparable to a chief operating office at a corporation.

The review includes every case the pathologist worked on since his hiring in 2005, Parks said. The pathologist, Dr. Robert Morris Levy of Fayetteville, confirmed in an earlier interview he worked while impaired with alcohol in 2016, but said he didn’t work while impaired afterward. Levy acknowledged he’s the pathologist involved, although the system will not confirm, saying it’s a personnel matter.

Levy was suspended in

March 2016 for being impaired, but he returned to work that October after counseling and after a check of his work found no errors. Levy was again taken off clinical work in October 2017 after what the hospital described as a second instance of working while impaired. His dismissal in April came after a personnel review.

At least three attendees of Monday’s meeting said they never received the letters that were supposed to go out to either the patients involved or their families. Parks said the Ozarks system did its best and apologized to anyone not receiving a letter. There are 33,806 cases involved going back 13 years, he said.

Linda Alderson of Bentonville, daughter of a deceased veteran, and Jamie Jackson of Galena, Kan., widow of another, said not enough public notice was given to cover cases in which letters were missed.

The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine signed a contract with the Veterans Department this month to join the review. A van loaded with tissue samples left for Oklahoma City on Friday, Parks said. That medical school joins the University of Arkansas School for Medical Sciences along with outside pathologists and specialists within the Veterans Department in the region and one pathologist from the U.S. Air Force Academy.

A final report will be made public in January, he said.

The Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General is investigating the retention of the pathologist after his first reported impairment, Parks said.

The Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks serves veterans in 23 counties in Northwest Arkansas, southwest Missouri and eastern Oklahoma.

It was also announced at the town hall the system received approval to build a mental health facility on the main campus. The building will have 16 beds initially and a second floor can be added, system administrators said.