Many of our readers in Connecticut have likely heard news reports over the last several years about the myriad problems that the Veterans Administration has faced. In some of the most explosive reports about the VA, there have been allegations that the waitlist for healthcare has resulted in many veterans dying while waiting for treatment. Other reports decried the shoddy condition of VA facilities. Now, in a recent report, there are allegations that the VA has been concealing incidents of medical malpractice committed by their healthcare professionals.
The report, the result of a reportedly intense investigation by USA Today, details how some healthcare professionals who have previously been employed by the VA committed several different instances of medical malpractice, only to see their mistakes covered up by the VA. In some cases, the VA didn’t even report the incidents to the proper licensing boards when the healthcare professionals left the VA, which allowed the healthcare professionals to continue their negligent behavior in private practice.
Another aspect of the concealment was the many different allegations of medical malpractice and other complaints against the VA that were resolved by settlements. In fact, the recent USA Today report indicates that there were hundreds of these types of settlements.
Any type of medical malpractice is scary for a patient to imagine. Everyone expects that they will receive top-notch care. Unfortunately, this isn’t always how things turn out, and it appears that our nation’s military veterans may be paying a serious price for the medical malpractice of healthcare professionals employed by the VA.
Source: USA Today, “VA conceals shoddy care and health workers’ mistakes,” Donovan Slack and Michael Sallah, Oct. 11, 2017
