Page 49 - January Febuary 2016 Issue
P. 49
Veterans’ Afiairs: Revisting the VA Scandal
“The Washington Examiner irst reported the admission, which was made by the agency in a
letter to Rep. David Jolly (R., Fla.) after the lawmaker pressured the agency for information
regarding several veterans in his district who had been incorrectly declared dead and deprived
of their beneits.
The VA wrongly declared 115 veterans across the nation dead during the nine-month period
between July 2014 and April 2015, the agency admitted in the letter. To prevent such errors in
the future, the agency said that it is developing a policy that would involve using an automated
system to declare veterans dead based on information from the Social Security Administration’s
database.
Currently, employees manually designate veterans as deceased.”
Current VA Chairman, Robert McDonald. photo courtesy of freebeacon.com
This simply cannot be the standard of care our Veterans deserve. On our podcast that was
mentioned earlier, I was blessed to re-connect with a Marine Brother who is now working in
the private health care industry. He stated, and I can attest to this based upon my professional
experiences, that private hospitals have to meet the highest of standards set by State and Federal
Laws. Although the standards listed below are taken from the NYS Department of Health, there
is very little variation of standards found from State to State. These hospitals are vetted by:
• Patient Satisfaction and Emergency Department Timeliness
• Number of Procedures and Surgeries Performed
• Complications of Care
• Use of Recommended Practices
• Hospital-Acquired Infection Rates
• Death Rates and Re-admissions
• Inspection and Complaint Results
49
“The Washington Examiner irst reported the admission, which was made by the agency in a
letter to Rep. David Jolly (R., Fla.) after the lawmaker pressured the agency for information
regarding several veterans in his district who had been incorrectly declared dead and deprived
of their beneits.
The VA wrongly declared 115 veterans across the nation dead during the nine-month period
between July 2014 and April 2015, the agency admitted in the letter. To prevent such errors in
the future, the agency said that it is developing a policy that would involve using an automated
system to declare veterans dead based on information from the Social Security Administration’s
database.
Currently, employees manually designate veterans as deceased.”
Current VA Chairman, Robert McDonald. photo courtesy of freebeacon.com
This simply cannot be the standard of care our Veterans deserve. On our podcast that was
mentioned earlier, I was blessed to re-connect with a Marine Brother who is now working in
the private health care industry. He stated, and I can attest to this based upon my professional
experiences, that private hospitals have to meet the highest of standards set by State and Federal
Laws. Although the standards listed below are taken from the NYS Department of Health, there
is very little variation of standards found from State to State. These hospitals are vetted by:
• Patient Satisfaction and Emergency Department Timeliness
• Number of Procedures and Surgeries Performed
• Complications of Care
• Use of Recommended Practices
• Hospital-Acquired Infection Rates
• Death Rates and Re-admissions
• Inspection and Complaint Results
49
