Veterans hospital officials removed over care allegations

MANCHESTER, N.H.— Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin has removed two top officials at New Hampshire’s only veterans hospital and ordered a review of the facility starting Monday amid allegations of “dangerously substandard care.”

The Boston Globe reported that 11 physicians and medical employees alleged the Manchester VA Medical Center was endangering patients. They described a fly-infested operating room, surgical instruments that weren’t always sterilized and patients whose conditions were ignored or weren’t treated properly.

The Office of the Special Counsel, a federal whistle-blower agency, found “substantial likelihood” the allegations were true and ordered an investigation, which began in January.

Shulkin also said two agency offices would conduct a “topto-bottom review” of the hospital, beginning Monday.

Following the newspaper report Sunday, Shulkin removed hospital Director Danielle Ocker and Chief of Staff James Schlosser. A VA spokesman said the two would be assigned other duties in the interim.

“We will stop at nothing short of delivering the best care for our veterans,” said Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who said he called Shulkin on Sunday morning.

The Globe reported in a recent interview, Ocker and Schlosser acknowledged significant cuts in services, such as the elimination of cataract surgery, and administrative problems, such as ordering a $1 million nuclear medicine camera but never installing it because it was too big for the examination room. As a result, the hospital stopped offering nuclear stress tests for heart disease risk and bone scans that can detect tumors this year.

But Ocker and Schlosser said they were surprised that so many medical staff members reported the problems to federal investigators. They said the hospital was addressing the shortcomings and patient safety hasn’t been compromised.

Much of the Globe’s report focused on accounts from Dr. William “Ed” Kois, head of Manchester VA’s spinal cord clinic, who compiled a list of at least 80 patients at the hospital over five years suffering from advanced and potentially crippling nerve compression in the neck, and using canes, wheelchairs and walkers, instead of getting surgery.

He said the condition is easy to diagnose and treat with surgery before it progresses too far.

“It’s like if you suddenly saw cases of syphilis—a disease that has long been curable with penicillin,” Kois said.

Dave Kenney, chairman of the State Veterans Advisory Committee, attended a regularly scheduled meeting with other veterans service groups at the VA center Monday. He said he and others urged Interim Director Alfred Montoya to ensure that VA investigators make patients a big part of their probe.

“They really need to get a complete picture, and everyone’s going to give them a different story,” he said.