Huntington VA dodges bullet
Another Pat sends us a link from MetroNews which reports that the Huntington, West Virginia VA Medical Center was scheduled to get a new director, Doug Paxton, an Oregon VA director who was being transferred because of some controversy at the Roseburg VA facility.
According to the New York Times, Paxton was denying treatment for veterans against doctor recommendations in order to improve “quality of care ratings” of the Roseburg facility. For example;
An 81-year-old veteran hobbled into the emergency room at the rural Veterans Affairs hospital here in December, malnourished and dehydrated, his skin flecked with ulcers and his ribs broken from a fall at home.
A doctor examining the veteran — a 20-year Air Force mechanic named Walter Savage who had been living alone — decided he was in no shape to care for himself and should be admitted to the hospital. A second doctor running the inpatient ward agreed.
But the hospital administration said no.
Though there were plenty of empty beds, records show that a nurse in charge of enforcing administration restrictions said Mr. Savage was not sick enough to qualify for admission to the hospital. He waited nine hours in the emergency room until, finally, he was sent home.
“The doctors were mad; the nurses were mad,” said Mr. Savage’s son-in-law, Mark Ridimann. “And my dad, he was mad, too. He kept saying, ‘I’ve laid my life on the line, two years in Vietnam, and this is what I get?’”
The denial appeared to be part of an attempt by members of the Roseburg Veterans Administration Medical Center to limit the number of patients it admitted to the hospital in an effort to lift its quality-of-care ratings.
So, the VA decided to move Paxton to Huntington, I guess to hide him away. That’s when the mayor of Charleston, West Virginia, Danny Jones, contacted Senator Joe Manchin who stopped Paxton’s assignment.
Manchin confirmed Monday on the mayor’s show “580 Live” on MetroNews affiliate 580-WCHS that Paxton will not be transferred to the Huntington facility.
“I don’t know where he’s going or if they’re reviewing, but he’s not coming to West Virginia,” Manchin said.
I still won’t vote for Manchin in the Fall, but he did good on this one.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Again, I’ve no doubt that the medical side of the house does the best they can, with notable exceptions like the Manchester VA.
It’s the BUREAUCRACY that kills many times more patients than medical malpractice ever will.
Dear libtards: You want to see what single payer healthcare looks like and how you’d be treated?
Go to your local VA.
“Dear libtards: You want to see what single payer healthcare looks like and how you’d be treated?”
^^this^^
Anyone who’s worked in government can tell you how terrible they are at doing pretty much anything.
+1
yep, Manchin was one of the few to cross the aisle in that last vote. Better than either of the Senators from Illinois…my State.
Durbin makes me want to puke. What a sleazeball.
Well, Quackerbubbles is preggers now, and someone will have to take her place. Durbin is a shmoe, but unless someone pushes him aside, he won’t leave until he has a stroke or something – unless someone runs against him that can break Madigan’s hold on Cook County’s voting populace.
The few times I’ve gone to the FHCC for anything, it was for a flu shot and nothing else.
The NYT article turned my stomach. Bureaucrats and health care are a deadly combination. Sickening stuff.
Bureaucrats and pretty much anything is a bad combination.
The hero here is Mayor Danny Jones and Manchin gives him credit. Made me wonder whether Jones isn’t a Vet and at least one source says he was a Marine who served in Vietnam. I suspect that’s true and I’ll tell you why: his mayor’s page makes no mention of it!
How many mayors would have stepped up for Mr Savage? If he is a vet, good looking out for a brother. If he is not a veteran, good job taking care of the townfolk that served.
Danny Jones was a motor T driver in the Marines. IF Jones was in Vietnam. It was only for a 4 month time span.He ran his last election off of being a EVN Veteran. Oppose open carry in public places in Charleston.
They have been doing this for years. Especially in the VBA.
They shift them from one side of the country to another to hide wrongdoing.
Think Willie Clark.
Think Catholic Church and the sex abuse by Priests…..
VBA and VHA are kinda tore up. VBA got a high amount of non-vet disgruntled Assholes. My year working with a few of them were not pleasant, especially some VHA office people.
A night of the long knives would do wonders for these incompetent VA Peeps.
Nah, just tar and feather ’em, then run them out of town on a rail……
“Night of the Numerous Pink-Slips” would be sufficient.
Government Bureaucrats can fuck a million wet dreams up in half a heartbeat and are often more ate up than a bag of dicks in a gay bar.
It’s an election year, which means Joe Manchin will try to do the right thing a little more often just to keep his seat in the Senate.
Where is he going instead? Can someone create a program to track all these clowns as they are shifted around from hither to yon?
Maybe their nefarious intent is at least disrupted for a while as they are being moved around. Maybe some of the no good underlings occasionally pause as they observe it all. One can hope.
From an article on Paxton, “(T)he VA is currently evaluating options for Paxton’s next assignment”. So, they’re looking for a VA facility where the locals won’t bitch about having an incompetent ass run the facility. https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/health/va-walks-back-beleaguered-oregon-employee-s-transfer-to-huntington/article_ce49a55c-1a60-5a8c-a8d4-a4f0b4f89299.html
There IS a place for incompetent ASSHOLES! It’s called the unemployment line!
“I still won’t vote for Manchin in the Fall, but he did good on this one.”
In short, he did the job he was elected to do. Serve the Public Trust and work for his constituents, not lobbyists and contributors.
If they all just did their damn job, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in.
WTF does it take to get these assholes fired?
Oh wait, I worked for the Feds, they don’t fire they promote.
I get that for union underlings, but aren’t the top tier administrators will and pleasure type appointees? Seems like they should be fairly easy to replace.
This guy must really suck the big one for the damn major to tell him to take a hike. Wonder if he will take a hint and stop being a bureaucratic scum and actually let the patients’ doctors make decisions such as this. Little more than a bean counter.
mayor, mayor, mayor, mayor