VA Nursing Homes-Call For Action

Last week The Hill ran an opinion piece, Patients in VA nursing homes are suffering — Wilkie needs to take responsibility. Responding to stories about poor care, the Secretary of the VA "responded that VA’s nursing homes 'care[ ] for sicker and more complex patients in its nursing homes than do private facilities.'" Although that may be true, the article notes, that is not a justification for poor care and the reported issues "are easily preventable and are not complex problems."  This follows the VA release of "a series of inspection reports detailing deficiencies in 52 out of 99 nursing home care facilities that caused “actual harm” to veterans."  Those numbers should give everyone pause.  The author calls for more "accountability [from the VA] by accepting responsibility for the problems outlined in them rather than making excuses and deflecting." Distinguishing between accepting responsibility and blame, the author offers that "[a] culture of responsibility is a greater asset to an organization like VA than the things we most often hear about, such as an increased budgets or legislative changes."

Click here to read the USA Today story about the deficiencies found in the VA nursing homes.