video on this page...These people
aren't speaking out because they have families....What about the families of
our VETS ??? These people need to be arrested for allowing our VETS to DIE !!!!
This isn't culling the tares, it's willful murder !!!!!
A fatal wait:
Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital's secret list
By Scott
Bronstein and Drew Griffin, CNN Investigations
updated
9:19 PM EDT, Wed April 23, 2014
(CNN) -- At least 40 U.S. veterans died
waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system,
many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.
The
secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs
managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans
were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top
VA doctor and several high-level sources.
For
six months, CNN has been reporting on extended delays in
health care appointments suffered by veterans across the country and who died while
waiting for appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA
are perhaps the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far.
Internal
e-mails obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona
knew about the practice and even defended it.
Dr.
Sam Foote just retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix.
The veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA works
off two lists for patient appointments:
There's
an "official" list that's shared with officials in Washington and
shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham
list. And then there's the real list that's hidden from outsiders, where wait
times can last more than a year.
Deliberate
scheme, shredded evidence
"The
scheme was deliberately put in place to avoid the VA's own internal
rules," said Foote in Phoenix. "They developed the secret waiting
list," said Foote, a respected local physician.
The
VA requires its hospitals to provide care to patients in a timely manner,
typically within 14 to 30 days, Foote said.
According
to Foote, the elaborate scheme in Phoenix involved shredding evidence to hide
the long list of veterans waiting for appointments and care. Officials at the
VA, Foote says, instructed their staff to not actually make doctor's
appointments for veterans within the computer system.
Instead,
Foote says, when a veteran comes in seeking an appointment, "they enter
information into the computer and do a screen capture hard copy printout. They
then do not save what was put into the computer so there's no record that you
were ever here," he said.
According
to Foote, the information was gathered on the secret electronic list and then
the information that would show when veterans first began waiting for an
appointment was actually destroyed.
"That
hard copy, if you will, that has the patient demographic information is then
taken and placed onto a secret electronic waiting list, and then the data that
is on that paper is shredded," Foote said.
"So
the only record that you have ever been there requesting care was on that
secret list," he said. "And they wouldn't take you off that secret
list until you had an appointment time that was less than 14 days so it would
give the appearance that they were improving greatly the waiting times, when in
fact they were not."
I feel very sorry for the people who work at the Phoenix VA.
They all wish they could leave 'cause they know what they're doing is wrong.
Dr. Sam Foote
Dr. Sam Foote
Foote
estimates right now the number of veterans waiting on the "secret
list" to see a primary care physician is somewhere between 1,400 and
1,600.
Doctor:
It's a 'frustrated' staff
"I
feel very sorry for the people who work at the Phoenix VA," said Foote.
"They're all frustrated. They're all upset. They all wish they could leave
'cause they know what they're doing is wrong.
"But
they have families, they have mortgages and if they speak out or say anything
to anybody about it, they will be fired and they know that."
Several
other high-level VA staff confirmed Foote's description to CNN and confirmed
this is exactly how the secret list works in Phoenix.
Foote
says the Phoenix wait times reported back to Washington were entirely
fictitious. "So then when they did that, they would report to Washington,
'Oh yeah. We're makin' our appointments within -- within 10 days, within the
14-day frame,' when in reality it had been six, nine, in some cases 21
months," he said.
Thomas Breen was so proud of his time in the Navy that he
wanted to be treated only at a VA facility, his family says.
In
the case of 71-year-old Navy veteran Thomas Breen, the wait on the secret list
ended much sooner.
"We
had noticed that he started to have bleeding in his urine," said Teddy
Barnes-Breen, his son. "So I was like, 'Listen, we gotta get you to the
doctor.' "
Teddy
says his Brooklyn-raised father was so proud of his military service that he
would go nowhere but the VA for treatment. On September 28, 2013, with blood in
his urine and a history of cancer, Teddy and his wife, Sally, rushed his father
to the Phoenix VA emergency room, where he was examined and sent home to wait.
"They
wrote on his chart that it was urgent," said Sally, her father-in-law's
main caretaker. The family has obtained the chart from the VA that clearly
states the "urgency" as "one week" for Breen to see a
primary care doctor or at least a urologist, for the concerns about the blood
in the urine.
"And
they sent him home," says Teddy, incredulously.
Sally
and Teddy say Thomas Breen was given an appointment with a rheumatologist to
look at his prosthetic leg but was given no appointment for the main reason he
went in.
The
Breens wait ... and wait ... and wait ...
No
one called from the VA with a primary care appointment. Sally says she and her
father-in-law called "numerous times" in an effort to try to get an
urgent appointment for him. She says the response they got was less than
helpful.
"Well,
you know, we have other patients that are critical as well," Sally says
she was told. "It's a seven-month waiting list. And you're gonna have to
have patience."
Sally
says she kept calling, day after day, from late September to October. She kept
up the calls through November. But then she no longer had reason to call.
Thomas
Breen died on November 30. The death certificate shows that he died from Stage
4 bladder cancer. Months after the initial visit, Sally says she finally did
get a call.
"They
called me December 6. He's dead already."
Sally
says the VA official told her, "We finally have that appointment. We have
a primary for him.' I said, 'Really, you're a little too late, sweetheart.'
"
At the end is when he suffered. He screamed. He cried.
Sally Brenn on the death of her father-in-law
Sally Brenn on the death of her father-in-law
Sally
says her father-in-law realized toward the end he was not getting the care he
needed.
"At
the end is when he suffered. He screamed. He cried. And that's somethin' I'd
never seen him do before, was cry. Never. Never. He cried in the kitchen right
here. 'Don't let me die.' "
Teddy
added his father said: "Why is this happening to me? Why won't anybody
help me?"
Teddy
added: "They didn't do the right thing." Sally said: "No. They
neglected Pop."
First
hidden -- and then removed
Foote
says Breen is a perfect example of a veteran who needed an urgent appointment
with a primary doctor and who was instead put on the secret waiting list --
where he remained hidden.
Foote
adds that when veterans waiting on the secret list die, they are simply
removed.
"They
could just remove you from that list, and there's no record that you ever came
to the VA and presented for care. ... It's pretty sad."
Foote
said that the number of dead veterans who died waiting for care is at least 40.
"That's
correct. The number's actually higher. ... I would say that 40, there's more
than that that I know of, but 40's probably a good number."
CNN
has obtained e-mails from July 2013 showing that top management, including
Phoenix VA Director Sharon Helman, was well-aware about the actual wait times,
knew about the electronic off-the-books list and even defended its use to her
staff.
I think it's unfair to call any of this a success when
Veterans are waiting 6 weeks on an electronic waiting list
From 2013 Phoenix VA e-mail obtained by CNN
From 2013 Phoenix VA e-mail obtained by CNN
In
one internal Phoenix VA e-mail dated July 3, 2013, one staffer raised concerns
about the secret electronic list and raised alarms that Phoenix VA officials
were praising its use.
"I
have to say, I think it's unfair to call any of this a success when Veterans
are waiting 6 weeks on an electronic waiting list before they're called to
schedule their first PCP (primary care physician) appointment," the e-mail
states. "Sure, when their appointment is created, it can be 14 days out,
but we're making them wait 6-20 weeks to create that appointment."
The
e-mail adds pointedly: "That is unethical and a disservice to our
Veterans."
Last
year and earlier this year, Foote also sent letters to officials at the VA
Office of the Inspector General with details about the secret electronic
waiting list and about the large number of veterans who died waiting for care,
many hidden on the secret list. Foote and several other sources inside the
Phoenix VA confirmed to CNN that IG inspectors have interviewed them about the
allegations.
VA:
'It is disheartening to hear allegations'
CNN
has made numerous requests to Helman and her staff for an interview about the
secret list, the e-mails showing she was aware of it and the allegations of the
40 veterans who died waiting on the list, to no avail.
But
CNN was sent a statement from VA officials in Texas, quoting Helman.
"It
is disheartening to hear allegations about Veterans care being
compromised," the statement from Helman reads, "and we are open to
any collaborative discussion that assists in our goal to continually improve
patient care."
Just
before deadline Wednesday, the VA sent an additional comment to CNN.
It
stated, in part: "We have conducted robust internal reviews since these
allegations surfaced and welcome the results from the Office of Inspector
General's review. We take these allegations seriously."
The
VA statement to CNN added: "To ensure new Veterans waiting for
appointments are managed appropriately, we maintain an Electronic Wait List
(EWL) in accordance with the national VHA Scheduling Directive. The ability of
new and established patients to get more timely care has showed significant
improvement in the last two years which is attributable to increased budget,
staffing, efficiency and infrastructure."
Foote says Helman's response in the first statement
is stunning, explaining the entire secret list and the reason for its existence
was planned and created by top management at the Phoenix VA, specifically to
avoid detection of the long wait times by veterans there.
"This was a plan that involved the Pentad,
which includes the director, the associate director, the assistant director,
the chief of nursing, along with the medical chief of staff -- in collaboration
with the chief of H.A.S."
Washington is paying attention
The Phoenix VA's "off the books" waiting
list has now gotten the attention of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee
in Washington, whose chairman has been investigating delays in care at veterans
hospitals across the country.
According to Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, what was happening in Phoenix is even
worse than veterans dying while waiting for care.
Even as CNN was working to report this story, the
Florida Republican demanded the VA preserve all records in anticipation of a
congressional investigation.
In a hearing on April 9, Miller learned even the
undersecretary of health for the VA wasn't being told the truth about the
secret list:
"It appears as though there could be as many
as 40 veterans whose deaths could be related to delays in care. Were you made
aware of these unofficial lists in any part of your look back?" asked
Miller.
"Mr. Chairman, I was not," replied Dr.
Thomas Lynch, assistant deputy undersecretary, Veterans Health Administration.
Congress has now ordered all records in Phoenix,
secret or not, be preserved.
That would include the record of a 71-year-old Navy
veteran named Thomas Breen.
Curt
Devine and Jessica Jimenez contributed to this report.
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