Brian Hawkins fired at DC VA Hospital
WTTG Fox5 in DC reports that the director of the VA medical center in the District of Columbia, Brian Hawkins, has been relieved from his position there due to gross mismanagement of the facilities there. Conditions were so bad, that the OIG published an interim report before their complete investigation had ended.
The VA Office of the Inspector General’s Rapid Response team came to the medical center on March 29 to begin its investigation and also returned for another visit last week.
According to the preliminary report released on Wednesday, it was found the medical center ran out of supplies needed for patient procedures and had to borrow them from a private hospital.
There was also $150 million of equipment that hasn’t been inventoried and can’t be accounted. Facilities were found to be filthy and hazardous.
They’ve named Colonel Lawrence Connell U. S. Army (Ret) as the DC VA’s Acting Medical Center Director.
He served more than 30 years as an Army medical service officer including 15 years as a MEDEVAC Pilot as well as Chief Operating Officer, Pacific Regional Medical Command, Honolulu, Hawaii; Chief Executive Officer of Stuttgart (Germany) U.S. Army Medical Health Clinic; Commander of the 43rd Area Support Medical Battalion; and other medical-related staff positions.
From WTOP;
According to the watchdog report, the center frequently ran out of supplies, ranging from special equipment for dialysis treatments and vascular surgery to common supplies such as oxygen tubes and alcohol pads. The shortages forced the center to cancel some patient procedures.
[…]
The full investigation will determine whether patient harm resulted from any of the shortcomings, the report stated. For now, “It’s too early for us to make those kind of findings,” Missal said. “Clearly, patients were impacted by this. Procedures were postponed; procedures were canceled. But we haven’t yet identified the specific risks to an individual patient.”
The investigation was spurred by a March 21 anonymous complaint to the IG.
In that video, a VA employee blames Congress for a lack of funding. I disagree. It’s probably more a result of misappropriation of funds. We can be reasonably certain that Brian Hawkins will still be working somewhere at the VA at his current pay.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
At what point do we declar the VA a “failed state” and send in the Army to occupy it and run it until a new operating structure can be created to take over?
End it and replace it. This has gone way too far. End the effective “tenure” that prevents removing dirtballs and slugs.
This is unconscionable!
Too big to fail….
“Mr. Hawkins began his career at Chicago’s Hines VA Medical Center as a Clerk/Typist. His career demonstrates continuous advancement through leadership positions which include; Medical Center Director at the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Associate Director and Chief Operating Officer of the VA Maryland Healthcare System and Associate Director and Site Manager for the Perry Point VA Medical Center. He has also held positions of authority at the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Atlanta VA Medical Center and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.” He sure got around. His academic background? Harvard MBA? No. Yale? Nope. Duke? Not quite. He holds a Master’s from the prestigious Governors State University. So there. He also served eight years in the NG, with no active duty, apparently.
Source: https://www.washingtondc.va.gov/about/leadership.asp
More so than the university he attended, his constant movement to different states shows he was moving around to keep ahead of getting slammed.
Yeah, I agree. That’s what I meant when I wrote, “He sure got around.” What really gets me is that he has been at D.C. facility since 2011. So, I guess he was one of the fixes to a briken system that Trump’s immediate predecessor repeatedly promised he would effect through the beret guy, Shitsucki/Shitsicki/Whatever.
And all of it within the VA system. Surprise.
Might explain much. As I recall, Hines has been repeatedly investigated over the past few years, and the entire Baltimore-area VA medical system (Perry Point in the Baltimore metro area) is among the absolute worst in the nation with respect to poor management and quality of service.
Yep. Moving bureaucrats from one place to another is the way they protect one another.
Well, whaddaya know – the link 2/17 Air Cav lists above giving the man’s bio is now “down for maintenance” (it was working a few minutes ago). I wonder why? (smile)
Google cache still has it.
Its back up
Typical Obama type Marion Barry looking loser. This is some sad shit here, to treat vets this way. “Hey, we don’t got no alcohol swaps for your antibiotic injection but here, I’ll lick my finger and wipe your arm off.”
Since 2/2011 I have been reporting about how horrible B. Hawkins and K. Morton manage the VAMC.
Please look into the police force at the Wash, DC VAMC. Personnel are afraid to ride the elevators; according to current and former employees.
There have been reports of patient abuse, staff assaults, etc.
Mrs. Martin
A lack of funding didn’t prevent routine inspections by the staff or equipment and supply audits. I learned that crap as a lowly 1LT company XO. You’d think that an SES could figure it out.
An SES who moved so frequently, it is very probable he was a scumbag the entire time he was an SES and moved to keep ahead of being linked to the scandals.
Keep passing the trash. You pass your trash to the left, ad pick up new trash from your right.
We hired an SSA in a previous unit and her current unit at the time was telling us, “yeah its totally sucky that she’s going for that job, you’ll be lucky to have her. We don’t know what we’ll do without her!”
Then, after she started work, we got told about all the EO complaints she constantly threw down, how much of a shitbag she was, how she barely did work and anytime she got written up about it, she threw an EO complaint out because she was a woman, black, an HR MOS, short, fat, etc. They were celebrating after she left, like they had a party because she was gone, literally.
Lack of funding my ass. The VA’s budget has gone up considerably in the last 10 years. If he really wasn’t getting enough funding, he’s right down the street from a bunch of Congressman’s offices to show them the facilities.
It is nice to see someone actually get “FIRED” from the VA for once. I hope this is the first of many.
THAT right there is the problem – making heads roll. The VA has been so insulated against actually being fired for being a fuck up for so long that they don’t even think they have to do their damn jobs.
Kill the union and start making them work for a living again.
Don’t see where he was fired. He was relieved of that job, but as Jonn said, he’ll probably pop up somewhere else still drawing SES $$$
The new Austin VA clinic has artwork in it valued at over $500K….
Probably closer to a million bucks in it…
Yet their new computer systems won’t talk to the Houston or other VA systems…
Go figger…
The endemic problem with the DC VA is that many of the employees view their jobs as entitlements, not duties. I’m not defending Hawkins, he personifies the self centered careerist mentality of far too many civil servants, but a combination of GEN Mattis and LTG McMaster, inspired by the spirit of GEN George S Patton III himself could not unf#$k that place until the purge the facility of the locally hired administrative staff.
I used to volunteer at that facility as a high-school student in the mid-80s and many of the people I worked with then are no different from the ones I have dealt with seeking treatment for my foot and ankle issues since I retired. The employees who get it are far outnumbered by the ones who seem to think the facility is there primarily to provide them a comfortable sinecure.
In my opinion, the VA leadership needs to conduct a wholesale pogrom of firings and bring in staff from other ares of the country, such as the mid-west, to change the basic culture of that place. Otherwise the next leader they put in charge will end up becoming just another titular scapegoat.
Turtle – you may need to fire some of the DC leadership as part of the process. The culture has needed a huge change for decades and some of those that were exposed to it are now the leaders in it and keeping the “culture” alive (such as the shitbird that was relieved).
The best option may be what Ret_25X suggests – a Tricare style program for veteran’s medical care.
The problem will be, they’ll need a shitload of new personnel in that TRICARE system to take care of all the veterans. All they would do is pull the ones working in the Dep VA now and transfer them to that “new system” and put them to work.
Far too often, it is the administrative/bureaucratic types that are the problem. So you’d get rid of all the medical professionals and end up with all the bureaucrats running that new system.
Not saying it isn’t a worthwhile idea, but that’s what I would expect them to do.
Nothing short of ending the VA in its entirety and just placing vets on some form of Tricare type program is going to work.
It must be culled, root and branch.
Dealing the VA from a leadership perspective is like “rogueing” beans…if you don’t dig it out to the roots it will just grow back taller than ever…
I liken it to “Colts foot”.
It spreads underground and the only thing that will kill it is 2,4D (agent orange).
Fitting.
Been saying the same for years. Give us all insurance cards and turn the entire agency into a referral and bill paying system but keep the Hospice care since many Vets have no family. Other than that, shut it the fuck down. I worked at a VA Mental Health clinic for 4 years after retirement. The staff, predominately liberal, hate the military. Had one psychologist, militant lesbian, tell me it would be her worst nightmare if her kid joined. Had another lead psychologist, militant lesbian, ask me what the Bataan Death March was and she referred to all Veterans as Soldiers. They are in it for themselves and the fat pensions they’ll get. Shut if down.
Needs a whuppin’, that one does.
Along with a lot of other VA staff and admins and…
I have an idea, let’s employ veterans at the VA rather than bureaucrats and lazy civilian slobs. Then, we’d have regular G.I. parties at the hospitals so we won’t see these mold-ridden hospitals whenever the media investigates and we’d have a group that actually wants to help the veterans rather than finding excuses to not help them.
Cocksucker.
I used to live in the NoVA area and regularly used the Washington DC VA Hospital. One of the finest neurologists that I’ve ever had as a doctor worked there.
But damn, some of the worst people in the VA system that I’ve ever had to deal with were there as well.
And don’t get me started on the actual building. You’d think that the VA Hospital in our nation’s capital would be a shining example of everything right with the system. Well it’s not. It’s a shit-hole building and everything is falling apart. There were numerous times I couldn’t make an appointment because the elevators were not working, and that’s just as a start.
I just shake my head at this crap.
ANNIE YU
That’s all. ‘Nuff said.
I turned off the sound and just watched her.
HOT!
must be Vietnamese.
Korean. You should have seen her at the opening of the MGM Casino in National Harbor. Yowsie!!! Tight red dress.
Here are some of her photos.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Annie+Yu+Fox+5+Sexy&FORM=IDMHDL
I have it on good authority that Jonn has a touch of the old “Yellow Fever”, in this particular instance so it’s not entirely by coincidence *smile*
been working with Asians for 27 years now and can tell you that while there are attractive women everywhere, in any group of 10 Asian women the odds are 3:1 that the most attractive ones will be Vietnamese.
and there is always the exception…. she was born in Seoul. Ah well. Pretty lady nonetheless.
Yep, I’d stick my penis in her.
One scumbag down, a shitpot more to go.
According to the news chick, the OIG rec’d an anonymous report “back in March.” Back in March? Even if it was during the first week in March, that is rather remarkable for its swiftness. Something tells me that whoever blew that whistle gave the IG an itemized list of what and a detailed road map of where.
Bonus points for having a clip of my sweetheart, Annie Yu. If she was president, she would be Baberaham Lincoln. Do a google search of her in her Redskins cheerleader uniform. That just might be what it takes for me to be part of Redskins Nation.
Old Dirtbag Hawkins here will be moved to another position and probably promoted.
The VA is worse than the Catholic Church in punishing malfeasance.
To hell with this guy. And I can only imagine why he was hired in the first place…..
I wonder if Walt and the boys at VA General Counsel will be defending this assclown if it was proven he caused harm? Probably. They have a tendency to stick up for shitbags (themselves included).
At least the dude that replaced him seems squared away.
Man, oh, man.
Also in the “shut it down” camp except for hospice. Maybe a few specialty clinics for amputees and mental health. Otherwise shut it down It is a huge waste of money and the opposite of what was intended being a disservice and an insult to vets.
I’m so sick of listening to these cocksucking government employees whining about “lack of funding”. What a crock of shit. Lack of funding caused 150 million in inventory to disappear? Lack of funding caused you to be a lazy fucking slob that lets your work space become a disgusting pig sty? Fuck that guy and all those like him.
The hospital’s Leadership Team page looks different this morning. Gone, like a snowflake on water, is Hawkins. So is his number two. Just like that. Poof! Poof!
https://www.washingtondc.va.gov/about/leadership.asp
We need a “Well…Bye.”
I am sure that LSSBB is going to make all the difference.
Just saw they fired this POS again. Maybe it’ll stick this time.
Another vote here for Medicare, Part V, with the exception of some specialized care centers.
The only who should have to use the DC VA center is Bernie Sanders, since he’s so concerned about the crap employees not being unjustly fired.
DC VA Epic Center of Pride. More concerned with fashion than veterans. Hawkins was uncaring and arrogant. Walked around hands in pocket snubbing his nose at veterans. DC VA.is run down. The good employees suffer while the privileged long term entitled employees do the minimum for the maximum. No accountability. When they know someone in authority is coming to check window dressing happens. Sloan and Obama Visted why announce you are coming surprise em. Then they never talk to the vets only management. Why? Because they want to hear the truth. The same management creating the problems. I wrote the White House numerous times about Hawkins and Veteran Affairs sent letters to Congress. Nothing was done other than an inquiry sent to Hawkins. He was guilty of a staff being improperly promoted and did interfere with a AIB investigation I was at the center of. He did what he was allowed to do with no accountability. Solution Hire veterans to work at the VA. Stop the hiring of friends and family. Get rid of the old guard hire new employees willing to make a change. OR SET US FREE TO CHOOSE OUR OWN HEALTHCARE. Stop the bonuses, try mystery patients like mystery shoppers. Dump AIB and. Get an company that will conduct a fair and impartial investigation. Not enough doctors, therapist, nurses, social workers. Too many postions that people are paid to go to meetings and nithing else. Cut the fat. LISTEN to the people that served not the ones you reward for doing harm.