Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
VA Official Pushes Back Against Watchdog Report Blasting Phoenix Hospital
The Associated Press: Official Says Phoenix VA Health Care System Has Improved
Despite a new report raising serious questions about the quality of care within the Phoenix VA Health Care System, a top official in the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs said Wednesday that significant progress has been made. ... The report, which was released Tuesday, found Phoenix VA staff inappropriately canceled medical consults that possibly contributed to the death of one veteran who did not get a recommended stress test. Consults include appointments, lab tests, teleconferencing and other planned patient contacts. (10/5)
In other news on veterans' health care —
The Washington Post: After War Wounds And A Long Wait, A Quadruple Amputee Gets New Arms — And A New Life
Retired Marine Corps Sgt. John Peck is crying as he lies on the operating table, the stumps of his arms anesthetized, the room filled with lights and figures in blue scrubs. He’s been praying since his plane left Virginia the night before, asking for strength. And a nurse keeps trying to comfort him. But the weight of what’s happening has hit him, and for the moment he is overcome. It’s been six years since he stepped on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan and became a quadruple amputee. Almost two years since he got on the waiting list for a double arm transplant. Less than 24 hours since the urgent summons from the hospital here. (Ruane, 10/5)
Kansas City Star: Lee's Summit Man Fears Menninger VA Hospital's LSD Experiments Sped Brother's Fall Into Schizophrenia
The LSD experiments were conducted by VA psychiatrist Ken Godfrey, one of the doctors who had presented on his research in the 1965 colloquium at the Menninger Clinic, then in Topeka. Any records that would show whether Rowland was part of the LSD research are either missing or don’t exist. But he stayed at the Topeka VA hospital briefly in 1972, and a subsequent doctor’s note, recorded when Rowland visited the Kansas City VA hospital, includes this scrawled entry: “The (patient) feels that on last admission he was given LSD and suffered hallucinations.” (Robertson, 10/5)
