VA failures endure after 3 chiefs

On the front lines at the Department of Veterans Affairs — in the agency’s 1,240 hospitals and clinics — it doesn’t much matter who holds the secretary’s job in Washington.

David Shulkin, who was fired Wednesday, was the third VA secretary in four years. If President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the agency, Navy Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, is confirmed, he will be the fourth.

Each leader sought to fix the department, laying out visions and priorities – Shulkin’s top priority was making sure veterans got appointments when neede. His predecessor, former Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald, focused on staffing, training and veteran-centered customer service.

Critical deficiencies remain, and veterans bear the brunt of the failures.

In 2014, whistle-blowers in Arizona divulged that thousands of patients were backlogged at the Phoenix veterans hospital, and some of them died awaiting care. VA investigators determined that medical center administrators knew about the crisis, yet put out fraudulent wait-time data to collect bonus pay.

The VA’s lowest-performing hospitals remained at the bottom of the pack on the agency’s internal quality measures for two years in a row.

The VA regularly scores its medical centers based on dozens of quality factors, including death and infection rates, instances of avoidable complications and wait times.

In Washington, the VA inspector general issued a rare emergency report last year saying patients were in imminent danger at the hospital. The facility had dirty sterile storage areas and regularly ran out of critical supplies needed for surgeries and other procedures, including patches to seal blood vessels and tubes for kidney dialysis.

The VA has had persistent difficulties recruiting and keeping enough medical care providers to meet veterans’ needs.