#Middlebury #Veterans #VA #OIG
VETERANS POST
By Freddy Groves
You hate to learn of it, but per a Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, a former veteran who worked at a VA hospital was found guilty of stealing money out of patient accounts. It came about when the sister of a deceased veteran checked her brother’s account and discovered the missing funds. An investigation showed that the thief was stealing from accounts where the veteran was unable to appear in person at the cashier window to withdraw money due to illness and tried to blame the missing funds on someone using fake identification. All he got for his crimes was six months in jail and six months with an ankle bracelet at home.
An elderly veteran lost his foot due to deficient podiatry care. The whole sorry mess involved defective specialty diabetic shoes, blocked blood flow to the leg, a patient fall due to the shoes, lack of patient education, lack of communication among staff … and ended with amputation of the patient’s foot.
There was enough blame to go around, but nobody to throw in jail. The podiatrist didn’t adequately instruct on the proper fitting of the shoes. The fall wasn’t correctly reported because the safety officer was new. It could not be determined who did/didn’t warn the patient about possible amputation. And so on.
But not all OIG investigations are so serious. There was the VA employee auction of VA property, which was for the purpose of gathering funds for employee activities and parties. When purchasing agents placed orders for supplies, sometimes there were freebies or incentives sent by the manufacturer when the order was large enough. The employees would then auction off the extra goods, which were government property. It appears that the auctioning of the freebies had gone on for many years, with nobody admitting to the OIG that the vendor was selected because of the freebies they would get. The bulk of the free goodies were big-name expensive coolers.
© 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.
