On today (Jan. 4), his final day as Chairman of the House Veteran Affairs Committee, Cong. Bob Filner kept his promise to area veterans and citizens by returning to St. Louis and the John Cochran VA Medical Center, to speak to patients and staff about ongoing patient care issues at the facility. U.S. Rep. Bob Filner of San Diego and U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan of Missouri spoke to reporters at Carnahan’s St. Louis office before touring the facility.
Six months after Filner held hearings in St. Louis about equipment sterilization problems at Cochran’s dental clinic – he said there has been no word from the VA about holding anyone accountable for exposing more than 1,800 veterans to viruses and blood-borne illnesses due to improper sterilization techniques, no any official report on changes or improvements. About a handful tested positive for hepatitis, although it is uncertain whether it was a result of being treated at the clinic.
“There may be a good reason why it’s taking longer. The sterilization issues really reveal the tip of an iceberg for other problems –other management problems, morale problems, staff problems at Cochran,” Filner said. “It’s not a secret that in the various surveys that are given at every hospital in the country, for patient satisfaction, that Cochran is at the bottom.”
Reports from the two independent bodies investigating problems at Cochran – the Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office – are expected to be made public by mid-Spring, Carnahan said. A third, internal VA investigation, was reportedly concluded in November, but has yet to be made public.
Four nurses who work at Cochran met with the Congressmen earlier today, and detailed some of the problems the hospital, including:
? Oxygen tubing for respiratory assistance is chronically broken or unavailable;
? Tools that could provide time-critical diagnoses, such as fundoscopes, are unavailable, despite over three years of regular requests;
? Lack of disposable equipment in “isolation rooms,” which is important in preventing the transmission of infectious diseases from one patient to another;
? Too few nurses and nursing aides are assigned to too many patients, compromising nurses’ ability to provide proper care and resulting in patients going days without baths or clean linens.
Wes Gordon, a Cochran nurse who spoke today with Carnahan and Filner said a request for applesauce for patients who cannot swallow, and need medication ground into soft food – took over two years to be addressed. And when he brought in his own supply of applesauce, he was immediately reprimanded.
“This is unacceptable in an organization that is supposed to be patient-focused,” said Carnahan.
The new republican chairman of the veteran affairs committee will be Jeff Miller of Florida, who was at the hearing in St. Louis last summer. Filner said Miller pledged his support to continue investigating and get to the bottom of what is happening at the Cochran VA hospital.
