Posted on Fri, Jun. 15, 2007
Seattle-area VA hospital criticized
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE --
The Department of Veterans Affairs knew for months that shower heads, handrails and other fixtures posed serious suicide risks to Seattle-area psychiatric patients, but refused to fix the problems, inspectors said in a report released Friday.
The VA said it scrambled to remedy problems in Seattle after a medical standards group threatened to pull its endorsement of two area hospitals last month. Health care for the nation's veterans has been rocked in recent months by accounts of shoddy treatment at the Department of Defense's Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., inspected the Seattle VA hospital's progress Friday and said the hospital is correcting problems identified by inspectors. She spent nearly two hours touring the hospital's two psychiatric wards and repeatedly asked VA officials to let her know if they need more money.
But Murray also criticized how the problems were handled.
"What happened in those four months?" Murray, D-Wash., asked her tour guides. "Can I be absolutely blunt? I heard it wasn't a resources issue. ... It was a lack of leadership issue."
The Chicago-based Joint Commission, a nonprofit hospital standards group, said psychiatric ward conditions posed an "immediate threat to life" after it inspected the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in May.
Commission inspectors found picture frames with sharp metal corners hung on the walls and fire extinguishers sitting behind breakable glass panes. The furniture in the common areas was neither terribly heavy nor bolted down.
VA officials initially refused to release details of the inspection, which was first reported by The News Tribune of Tacoma. Murray, a senior member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, released it Friday after obtaining a copy.
The document said VA officials knew in February that suicidal patients could use several room fixtures to hang themselves, but "rejected that these were viable risks and elected not to correct." An internal report was issued that month after a patient at the Seattle VA hospital was found hanging from a support rail in November.
Dennis Lewis, director of the VA Northwest Health Network, and Stan Johnson, who moved to Seattle two weeks ago to become the hospital's director, acknowledged that administrators didn't properly respond to the staff's recommendations following the suicide. They said the VA is responding to all the commission's findings.
The VA has removed rails from the beds and ordered 70 new beds and extra-heavy furniture for the psych wards at the Puget Sound hospitals. It has also removed pictures from the walls except in public areas, and is taking other steps such as covering pipes under bathroom sinks to prevent patients from hanging themselves.
The improvements cost $450,000, and administrators said they expected other VA hospitals around the country to reevaluate their psychiatric facilities. Health care for veterans has been a top concern in recent months following accounts of shoddy treatment at the Defense Department's Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The joint commission, which sends inspectors for unannounced visits every three years, had never complained about the support rails, picture frames or other items it cited in a preliminary report last month, administrators said.
On Thursday, officials told The Associated Press that the Army is planning to hire at least 25 percent more psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers to help a growing number of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health needs.
Walter Reed's new commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, said the Army medical system has lost the trust of soldiers, their relatives and the American people but is working hard to fix its problems and provide quality care to troops.