Unit V-Tragedy at the VA Hospital -MBA 6301-15K-7-C. Austiin
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Feb 20, 2024
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Running head: TRAGEDY AT THE VA HOSPITAL 1
Tragedy at the VA Hospital
Caroline A. Austin
Columbia Southern University
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Tragedy at the VA Hospital
Our country has many serving members of the military who have sacrificed their livelihood in order to keep our country free and safe. The U.S. military will enlist about 175,000 young Americans into the military services (Carter, 2017). The people of the United States take great pride in being a strong nation and stories of heroism makes us proud. President Abraham Lincoln explained in his inaugural address that it was a nation’s duty to care for our veterans who wore the scars of battle, which includes his widow and their orphans (Carter, 2017). Veterans after serving will either retire from the military service or they would get out pursuing other job preferences. Veterans who are disabled depend on the health care that is established for them. Many VA hospitals were poorly staffed, but the budgeting resources were huge and endless. Many veterans have applied for their disability and have to depend on VA hospital care because they cannot afford to see a doctor at another hospital. Many have to wait for a long time
to get an appointment and while they wait for their appointments, they have been dying. For example, in the Tomah VA Hospital case was under fire for the overprescribing opioid drugs and
giving the impression that the hospital was called “candy land” by the press (Wentling, 2016). The inspector general, who investigates the death of a marine veteran, cited in his report, which the hospital was at fault for the accidental overdose death of a Marine Corps veteran (Wentling, 2016). This type of treatment of veteran should never have happened. Services provided for veterans are medical and dental treatments. Problems arise when health care is not up to standards for the veteran. The tragic incidents of the death of veterans trying to get medical care spurred the anger of not only the current president of the united states but the media had a hay-
day with the stories from other veterans who suffered as well as family members who reported the death of their loved ones. The emotional hurt and scars will take a long time to heal.
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VA protocol failures Dental treatments were at an all time low and in one case nearly 600 veterans were exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV because a VA dentist did not correctly disinfect his equipment or instruments over a one year period according to the VA statement (Wentling, 2016). Failure to follow established infection control procedures is not acceptable, and we take the safety of our
patients seriously claimed the VA spoke person (Wentling, 2016). The VA, it seems has a lot of its ethical and moral standards because years of veteran neglect have accured over the years and started to escalade when the VA Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona scandal became big news and was flashed worldwide and became a national tragedy. Dental care is important for many veterans who cannot afford dental treatment in their elderly years when insurance is expensive. Any dentist that works for the VA should already know how to use proper sterilization techniques and
patient care treatments. Any dentist that fails to follow proper protocol for patients is not a dental professional that needs to work at the VA. A high standard in any dental office is a top priority for patient that needs the care. Though this incident is of one of many problems, the VA in phoenix was not the only VA that had its share of protocol procedures not being followed. The VA in Murfreesboro, Tennessee had its fair share of violation of protocol when equipment in the colonoscopy department employees failed to properly sterilize the equipment. As a result of this many patients were exposed to many diseases such as HIV, cancer, hepatitis C, and staff infections. The recall and notification of patients caused many law suits to ensue. Many had to be tested for several years to make sure no one contracted anything. Employee protocol failures have no reason to make excuses or fail to do their job. Supervisors failed to enforce training and failed to check to make sure protocols were followed. Ethical value and standards of conduct were not up to par and the VA officials seem to not follow their own standards.
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Hearings of VA hospital neglect. The process leads to a series of congressional hearings, the resignation of the top VA officials which included the secretary Eric Shinseki and a it established a multibillion-dollar emergency funding package from Congress to help settle cases and health care of veterans (Kesling, 2016). The tragedy of the whole situation was over all the cover ups, all the delays in treatments for veterans, the falsifying of records, the improper patient
care, and all the scheduling errors. The inspector general has issued half a dozen reports over the
Phoenix VA hospital which has constant issues that seems to still have a lot of bad problems (Kesling, 2016). The officials and the employees of the VA hospitals have violated their ethical values and did not care to fix any problems that arose in the system. In a sense the VA Hospital’s officials had no social responsibility or even any ethical value. The employees became desensitized over the practice and behavior of the policies and procedures that causes a lot of pain for many veterans. The current president of the United States and politicians presented a bill that would make it easier for VA employees to be fired if any more deaths or failure to medically treat veterans. Many families of the veterans who suffered at the hands of employees were happy with this bill. It will make the VA officials be stricter in their social responsibility and making sure all employees follow proper protocols. Once their integrity was lost in this situation , the VA officials step up to the plate to make sure this will not happens again. Even though there is still a few problems, they continue to iron out the problems and make quick corrections. The Constant problems and ethical issues. Why the VA employees did not take affirmative
action to resolve the problems that they were aware of caused a nationwide scandal that rock everyone to the core. Two years after the major scandal erupted, the Phoenix VA Hospital continues to commit scheduling errors leading to delays and lack of care which is unacceptable
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(Kesling, B., 2016). The Phoenix VA hospital and their health care system that services about 80,000 patients was the first VA facility to be identified in 2014 as having a very poor appointment and scheduling procedure which included tampering with records to make the patients wait times appeared to be within regulations but in fact was a breach of ethical proportion (Kesling, 2014). The ethical value in the care and treatment of veterans were appalling and with the situation that has occurred makes anyone wonder how employees went home at night without feeling a little guilty in their treatment of veterans. The leadership of the VA hospital in Phoenix violated the code of standards and lost their ethical value in the care of veterans. If you think about it, the VA does provide outstanding medical care, but at this time, the problem is that many veterans struggle to access the care they are entitled to (Carter, 2017). The VA at times has a difficult way of maintaining quality patient care satisfaction which should not be difficult at all (Carter, 2017). Correction has made progress to fix everything and to help the veteran’s receive their appointments in a timely manner. Additional out sourcing programs was initiated to help as well. Changes in the VA services are in much need of upgrading. Too many veterans have much needed care. As the population ages, there are many veterans are in the aging category and soon the number will go down but with IRAQ war, the new number of veterans are now younger and will need many years of care. Abraham Lincoln promised to care for our nation’s battle worn veterans and weighed in the cost of their sacrifice. The idealism of Abraham Lincoln had a lot of common sense and great ethical value to care for all who serve. With a large budget to pay for care at a VA Hospital, no patient should have suffered from lack of care unless those who provide have no ethical sense. Society frowned after this news happened and many keep their eye on the VA so this will never happen again.
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References
Carter, P. (2017), What America owes its veterans: a better system of care and support, Foreign Affairs
, New York, N.Y., 96(5), 1150127, Retrieved from AB/Inform Collection database
Horton, A., (2018), Local veteran’s critique of VA goes viral, TCA Regional News, Chicago, IL,
Retrieved from AB/Inform Collection database
Kesling, B. (2016), Phoenix VA hospital continues to err in patient care, watchdog says; employees improperly canceled, delayed hundreds of consults two years after scandal over patient wait times, Wall street journal
(online), New York, N.Y., Retrieved from AB/Inform
Collection database
Khan, K. (2018), Local VA director talks with vets, families, TCA Regional News
, Chicago, IL, Retrieved from AB/Inform Collection database
Levine, A. (2017), How the VA fueled the national opioid crisis and is killing thousands of
veterans, Newsweek
, New York, N.Y., 169 (14), Retrieved from AB/Inform Collection
database
TCA Regional News (2018), editorial: problems in the VA health care can’t continue, Tribune Content Agency Regional News
, Chicago, IL, Retrieved from AB/Inform Collection database
Wentling, N. (2016), Hundreds of veterans at risk for infection from unsterilized VA dental
equipment, TCA Regional News
, Chicago, IL, Retrieved from AB/Inform Collection
database
Wotruba, T. R. & Chonko, L. B. & Loe, T. W. (2001), The impact of ethics code familiarity on manager behavior, 33, 59-69, Retrieved from AB/Inform Collection database
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