Wisconsin VA dentist may have infected hundreds of vets
A dentist who worked for the Veterans’ Affairs Department in Tomah, Wisconsin, used unsanitary practices which COULD have resulted in the infecion of hundreds of veterans according to WEAU;
The Tomah VA says it’s in the process of notifying 592 veterans that they may be infected with Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or HIV after they received care from one particular dental provider.
Acting Medical Center Director Victoria Brahm said the dentist was using his own equipment, then cleaning it and reusing it, which violates the VA’s regulations.
The Tomah VA says it uses sterile and disposable equipment.
The VA says he did this for one year, from October 2015 through October 2016.
It came to light when someone filling in for his assistant noticed what was going on and reported it.
That dentist has been removed from patient care and is now working in an administrative role.
Well, at least he isn’t on unemployment or something. That would be horrible. The VA says that they have called about 50 veterans directly and they’re mailing the others. I hope the assistant that didn’t report his practices is on the block, too.
Thanks to everyone who sent links to this story.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
I can’t even get into see the dentist at my VA Hospital, I guess I’m glad about that now?
Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll go to the MPSB to appeal and they’ll say, “well, we haven’t fired anyone else doing bad shit, so put him back to work!”
What the fuck…?
I can think of a number of variations on anesthesia-free and antiseptic-free oral surgery which could be performed by any number of vets on this dentist.
And on the admins who let him stay on the public dole.
Remember kids, this is but a glimpse of what a single-payer healthcare system looks like!
My wife is a dental hygienist, they reuse a lot of stuff all the time. But they stick it in an autoclave with some kind of special tape that changes color when it hits the right temp to kill bacteria and all that stuff.
So when they say clean do they mean he was washing it in the sink with soap or was he sterilizing his own stuff up to civilian code?
Not that its right he broke the rules but it could give piece of mind to vets while they await testing…
Good point.
Since what the VA provided was single use stuff, it’s rather doubtful that proper sterilization equipment was there. Of course, who knows – it’s the VA.
Working at HQ, Tomah is one of the most jacked up VAs I seen in awhile. Nothing but problems coming out of that facility. Needs to be a clean wipe of that place.
This is something like the 3rd or 4th time I’ve seen something like this in the news this year. The others were not connected to the VA or military in any way, but they were still dentists. You have to wonder how anyone can be that stupid, do something like that and think it’s okay when it is not.
This isn’t the 19th century, when such things were poorly understood at best. There’s no excuse for it at all.
Send obama and Congress to this dentist. I bet the VA gets fix pretty quick…
OK, I have an evil thought going through my head. Imagine being one of the vets who got notification that he’s infected with HIV.
I don’t think any jury would convict him for ending the doctor and his assistant.
Or f##king them in the ass and returning what they gave him.
That would be a pain in the…nah, too easy.
Damn; typo’d my own name…SEMPER.
I suspect this means that whatever method he was using to clean these instruments wasn’t appropriate to the task at hand. It’s not at all uncommon for doctors and dentists to sterilize equipment and use it many times over and over with sterilization between uses.
One would hope if it were true that he wasn’t following a sterilization procedure and was instead cleaning with dish soap or something that he would lose his license to practice along with being placed on administrative duties for the time being….he should be facing charges and a loss of employment if he wasn’t following appropriate equipment cleaning procedures.
His defense at the Admin hearing. “But the detergent says anti-bacterial right on the label”
Two weeks later he will have a step increase and be in charge of dental ops at Great Lakes…
Our system blows.
“That dentist has been removed from patient care and is now working in an administrative role.”
YGBSM! Why has he not been fired outright? Not just a VA violation but an ADA violation.
Rumour has it the President-Elect Trumo is taping Former Gov.Palin to be the new head of the VA…..think she might get things cleaned up?
I doubt she can spell VA
She would not be my choice. Agree (smile) with the spelling thing below.
Sen. Scott Brown is also rumoured to be in the running.
VA did this bullshit in El Paso in 2004… now again. Don’t they fuckin’ learn? (Yeah, I know already– they don’t.)
Cocksucker.
Where is Negan when you need him?
Fucking Tomah again…wasn’t that the VA that overprescribed a veteran some drugs and ended up killing him? I had the misfortune of visiting that place and had no intention of returning after I left.
I wonder if the assistant that reported the problem has been fired yet? You do know the dentist will get a pay raise and some kind of bonus, right?
AMF, don’t let the door hit ya on the azz.
http://www.wkow.com/story/33858848/2016/12/Saturday/dentist-in-latest-tomah-va-scandal-resigns
“TOMAH (WKOW) — The dentist under investigation in the most recent Tomah VA scandal has resigned. The dentist, who has not yet been named, submitted his resignation papers Friday, Dec. 2, just days ahead of a meeting of the VA’s Review Board on Monday, Dec. 5.”