September 14, 2007
Buyer and Brown-Waite call for investigation of patient deaths at Illinois VA medical center
For more information, contact: Jeff Phillips, (202) 225-3527
Washington, D.C. — A spike in patient deaths halted surgery at the Marion, Ill., Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center and has prompted Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Republicans to call for an investigation by the department’s inspector general.
Committee Ranking Member Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Ranking Member Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) wrote VA Inspector General George Opfer today, requesting him to conduct an investigation on surgical deaths which have occurred at the facility over the past year.
“The investigation should include a complete review of the National Surgery Quality Improvement Program data from the facility, all corrective actions taken in response to the surgical deaths at the facility and by the VISN [Veterans Integrated Service Network], including the response from the Mortality and Morbidity Committee meetings,” Buyer and Brown-Waite wrote. “Additionally, we would like to request that the IG include an audit on the credentials and privileges of the surgical staff at the Marion VA Medical Center.”
The unusual increase in deaths at the Marion facility triggered a National Surgery Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) review. VA uses NSQIP to record information and review facility-specific trends in high-risk surgeries. Private facilities use NSQIP for similar purposes.
With major surgery at the facility halted, emergency surgeries will be contracted locally while others will be sent to VA’s St. Louis, Mo., facility. On Thursday, VA officials told the committee that the facility director and chief of staff would be detailed to other facilities by that day’s close of business. The chief of surgery has not at this point been relieved of duties.
For more news from House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Republicans, please go to:
http://republicans.veterans.house.gov
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