Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Investigation Finding VA Conceals Shoddy Care, Staff Mistakes Prompts Action At The Agency
USA Today: VA Conceals Health Care Workers' Mistakes And Misdeeds
Behind the walls of the nation's oldest veterans’ hospital, the reports were grim. Medical experts from the Department of Veterans Affairs blamed one botched surgery after another on a lone podiatrist. They said Thomas Franchini drilled the wrong screw into the bone of one veteran. He severed a critical tendon in another. He cut into patients who didn’t need surgeries at all. Twice, he failed to properly fuse the ankle of a woman, who chose to have her leg amputated rather than endure the pain. (Slack and Sallah, 10/13)
USA Today: Veterans Affairs Overhauls Policies On Poor Medical Care Providers
The Department of Veterans Affairs is pledging to overhaul its reporting policies for bad medical workers and a group of lawmakers is introducing legislation following a USA TODAY investigation that found the VA has routinely concealed shoddy care and staff mistakes. VA Secretary David Shulkin directed agency officials to expand a nearly 30-year-old policy that limited what medical providers the agency would report to a national database created by Congress to prevent problem medical workers from crossing state lines to escape their pasts and keep practicing. (Slack, 10/12)
