So the NY Times places the deficient VA care story right on the front page with the poll!
Maybe the front page editor is a closet conservative?
Posted on 06/20/2009 3:29:43 PM PDT by reaganaut1
For patients with prostate cancer, it is a common surgical procedure: a doctor implants dozens of radioactive seeds to attack the disease. But when Dr. Gary D. Kao treated one patient at the veterans’ hospital in Philadelphia, his aim was more than a little off.
Most of the seeds, 40 in all, landed in the patient’s healthy bladder, not the prostate.
It was a serious mistake, and under federal rules, regulators investigated. But Dr. Kao, with their consent, made his mistake all but disappear.
He simply rewrote his surgical plan to match the number of seeds in the prostate, investigators said.
The revision may have made Dr. Kao look better, but it did nothing for the patient, who had to undergo a second implant. It failed, too, resulting in an unintended dose to the rectum. Regulators knew nothing of this second mistake because no one reported it.
...
Had the government responded more aggressively, it might have uncovered a rogue cancer unit at the hospital, one that operated with virtually no outside scrutiny and botched 92 of 116 cancer treatments over a span of more than six years — and then kept quiet about it, according to interviews with investigators, government officials and public records.
The team continued implants for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation dose was broken. The radiation safety committee at the Veterans Affairs hospital knew of this problem but took no action, records show.
...
The 92 implant errors resulted from a systemwide failure in which none of the safeguards that were supposed to protect veterans from poor medical care worked, an examination by The New York Times has found.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Remember Brown, the guy in the Clinton administration who claimed the Vet hospitals were the best in the U.S.? Help us Jesus.
“I’d expect worse care on average at VA hospitals that have a ‘captive’ patient base.”
Eh. I’m a Vet and have had nothing but STELLAR care since the day I joined the Army in 1978.
My best pal of 30+ years is head of the Psych Ward at our local VA, my other best pal of 30+ years is the Admin to the Wisconsin State Adjutant General so NOTHING gets past her without complete scrutiny, and I also have a Vet that works for me part-time who is designing a new VA care facility hospital, and he is sparing NO expense and making it so gorgeous that Vets will be breaking down the doors to live out the last of their days there!
He’s designing a ‘wing’ with me in mind, but I told him I’ve lived in the worst possible conditions imaginable, so as long as the roof doesn’t leak, he didn’t have to get TOO fancy, LOL!
I’m sure quality of care varies from State to State, and if true, people should be strung up by their thumbs for abusing/mis-treating/mis-diagnosing Vets, but I can state that in Wisconsin we take very good care of our Vets.
And we should for the tax dollars allocated to them, which I don’t mind paying one bit. :)
Agree with you. Nothing but stellar care at the VA my experience.
VA Asheville, NC did my triple bypass six years ago.
Great medical care!
Thanks VA & US taxpayers!
Very professional staff and always the best equipment.
I suspect the problem here has to do more with “Philadelphia” than with “VA”.
I do not think this reflects upon VA medical care in general, from what I have observed, although I would say that from my experience as a contract provider of medical radiation oncology services to the VA, patients are totally clueless as to judging quality of care received. We are currently in a dispute with our local VA medical center which is essentially the only VA in the country that will not fund state-of-art cancer care for their patients. Sadly, the patients do not know what they are not receiving.
I have gotten the best care at the VA hospital, the only exception being the walkin urgent care center where there is a wait. Nothing like a regular hospital ED where you wait 6 hours to be seen. All in all I think the VA is top notch. There are extremely efficient and paperless.
One can find a fair share of bad doctors even in hospitals with big names, just as one can find bad teachers in Ivy League colleges and wonderful teachers in no-name hospitals, schools, and universities.
We could not have asked for better care for my dad. Although he did eventually die of a heart attack (at home). He received outstanding care in the two or three VA hospitals he went to. (They were also associated with teaching hospitals - Stanford and OHSU)
I saw firsthand how wonderfully the nurses treated him even when he was less than an ideal patient. The treatment rec’d kept him with us an extra 18 years or so. We’ll always be thankful for it.
So the NY Times places the deficient VA care story right on the front page with the poll!
Maybe the front page editor is a closet conservative?
I am SO glad to hear that care is good in many places, as I have a physician friend who had horror stories from her time in a VA hospital a couple of years ago. From what she had told me, this story didn't surprise me in the least.
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