Veterans Affairs secretary David Shulkin said Thursday that he would initiate a top-down review of the VA medical center in the nation’s capital after an urgent watchdog report warned that patients were being put at risk due to bad inventory practices from potentially dirty syringes to medical supply shortages.
(FOX)- Shulklin said he had installed one of his close VA advisers, Lawrence Connell, as acting director of the medical center to ensure that problems were thoroughly investigated and fixes made.
“No veterans were harmed, but the risk was not acceptable to me,” Shulkin said. “There will be accountability if there’s wrongdoing.”
Wednesday’s report by VA inspector general Michael Missal pointed to a number of “serious and troubling deficiencies” at the Washington medical center, such as 18 of 25 sterile storage areas for syringes that were found dirty and poor record-keeping that led to equipment shortages.
In at least one instance last month, the medical center ran out of bloodlines for dialysis patients and was only able to provide dialysis services because staff members borrowed bloodlines from a private hospital.