Review of the VA Northern California Health Care System, Mather, California by VA-OIG ~ As reported by Ellyn Darrah This veteran has to commend the OIG Agency put in place to ensure the overall health and well-being of the people entrusted to the VAHS for care. NOT! Having been a patient at this particular facility for my healthcare for 18 months and knowing several other veterans that have also been victims there, I can only shake my head at the cherry picking Evaluation done there. 20% or 6 out of 30 of the Focused Professional Practice Evaluations were not reported to the MEC (Medical Evaluation Committee) this was a second time reprimand for this same offense. Not only has this facility had the same ongoing issues in multiple years evaluations, they dont seem to care enough to bring themselves up to standard. Missing were regular meetings of the Surgical Work Group and the Chief of Staff was not a Standing member nor was there a back up if the Chief was not in attendance. Another ongoing issue was the lack of quality record keeping in the patients Electronic Health Record (EHR). How can a health professional do follow up care if there is nothing in the patients record to follow up on? Four months of available minutes from the records team did NOT show any evidence of any quality reviews. The flip side of this coin and one NOT addressed at all is the lack of communication between the Outpatient Facilities in the surrounding region - none of the EHRs from one can be read at the other facility ie. McClellan Outpatient health care cannot see any visit for treatment at Mather Field Hospital across town. This makes the statement that the whole system across the USA is connected a great big fat lie. The Facility Medical Records Committee per their Charter showed no evidence of quarterly meetings to discuss or take actions to upgrade or increase the quality of their records keeping. The Mather Charter requires quarterly meetings to ensure ongoing quality control. The final issue that the OIG report touched on was cleanliness - in the Outpatient and ER, the gurneys and the patient scales for weight checks. I could have pointed out a multitude of other areas to check, but it was obvious that they did NOT want to find anything very wrong with this facility. va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-14-02081-41.pdf
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 15:00:01 +0000
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