VA facilities’ inventory goes missing

#Veterans #MissingInventory

If you’re getting care at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility and staff can’t find the equipment or supplies needed for your treatment, somebody has goofed up, likely somebody in inventory control. One hospital alone, as investigated by the VA Office of Inspector General, was supposed to stock $203 million in equipment and $5.5 million in expendable supplies.

In verifying the accuracy of the inventories, 82% of items in a random sample of surgical or medical items were found to be incorrect. That’s 49 of the 60 items checked. As an example, inventory records showed over 1,100 decontamination gowns. In reality, there was one gown. Then there were the over 1,500 expired items, the 94% of items that were not in the locations where they should have been, and the new supplies found in dumpsters.

Interestingly enough, the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) had conducted quality control reviews two years in a row, which meant they received documents and information from the facility. Their on-site reviews didn’t find the deficiencies the VAOIG did: missing data, expired supplies, inventory discrepancies, missing medicine cabinets, lack of correct use of the barcode system and more. Then there was the lack of training. And the VISN reviewers – because they lean heavily on data supplied to them – apparently didn’t notice the unlocked bins of veteran files, containing personal and health information, sitting outside the warehouse door.

The finger of blame for the expiration of biological and non-biological implant items can be pointed in several directions: staff because they weren’t tracking the inventory, the various departments that used different methods to track their items, vendors that weren’t made responsible for monitoring the items they supplied. And when problems did surface (damage and loss, for example), no one investigated. The end result of this VAOIG inspection was chilling: Patients were medically at risk because of expired implant items and financially at risk due to their personal and health information sitting in bins outside the warehouse door.

© 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.