Thursday, February 27, 2014

Top VA health official denies dumping patient records

Top VA health official denies dumping patient records
Navy Times
Leo Shane III
Staff Writer
Feb. 26, 2014

The Veterans Affairs Department’s top health official dismissed a report this week that VA health care system employees dumped thousands of medical appointment records in an effort to cover up overdue work.

Robert Petzel, VA’s undersecretary for health, called the report by the Daily Caller “scurrilous” and confused. He said the moves in question were part of planned administrative work to finalize out-of-date cases, not a cover-up effort.

“No one who needed care was denied care,” he told lawmakers at a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday. “This was a carefully thought out review. There was no attempt to eliminate records.”

A former VA employee told the Daily Caller that VA officials in Los Angeles intentionally erased thousands of patient exam requests during a 2009 review in an effort to disguise the staff’s inability to keep up with the increasing workload.
Petzel said more than 3,000 workers systemwide were removed from their jobs last year for substandard performance, and six senior executives were forced to resign for serious errors.
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