Legislators Question VA Promotion
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Printable FormatAssociated Press
ST. LOUIS - Four federal lawmakers want a Veterans Affairs chief to explain the promotion of a regional official to a national patient-safety role, claiming a string of surgical deaths at a Southern Illinois VA hospital make the appointee's track record "questionable."
Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, D-Ill., along with Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., and John Shimkus, R-Ill., sent a letter Wednesday to VA Secretary James Peake in hopes of blocking Peter Almenoff's ascension to the job of VA assistant deputy undersecretary for health and for quality safety.
Almenoff headed the Kansas City-based VA Heartland Network that included the VA hospital in Marion, where at least nine patient deaths between October 2006 and March 2007 were deemed "directly attributable" to substandard care there.
Of an additional 34 cases the VA investigated at the Marion site, 10 patients died after receiving questionable care that complicated their health, officials have said. Investigators could not determine if the actual care caused those deaths.
Major surgeries at the Marion VA -- which serves veterans from Southern Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky -- have been halted since last August, with no timetable yet announced for their resumption.
Although Almenoff did not work directly at the Marion VA during the time of the questionable treatment there, lawmakers behind Wednesday's letter say Almenoff "should have been aware of the mismanagement at Marion -- mismanagement that led to the deaths of veterans who had every right to trust that they would receive quality medical care."
"We are not aware of any efforts by the network to fix these problems in the months before the spike in mortality levels," the lawmakers' letter read. "Indeed, the Department's reviews identified certain deficiencies with the network led by Dr. Almenoff."
Calls on Wednesday by The Associated Press to Almenoff's Kansas City VA office were not immediately returned. A message also was left with a spokeswoman at the VA's national headquarters.