Tucked inside of a $1.1 trillion spending bill signed by President Obama on December 18, 2015 is a provision that protects Veterans Affairs (VA) whistleblowers from retaliation for reporting misconduct at VA hospitals.
The legislation comes at an opportune time, as VA whistleblowers recently charged that the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Hospital, which was at the center of the VA wait times scandal, still has not fixed problems that sparked national outrage. And as the Washington Post reports, one of the doctors who helped bring the scandal to light was retaliated against—but the superiors who punished her went undisciplined.
Dr. Katherine Mitchell, a former emergency room director with the Phoenix VA Hospital, was placed on administrative leave and demoted after she blew the whistle on understaffing, inadequate patient care, patient wait list mismanagement, and other issues at the hospital. While VA reached a settlement with Mitchell over her treatment, it did not punish two senior managers responsible for the retaliation, according to a report obtained by the Post.
The report, issued by the Office of Accountability Review in September 2014 and sent to VA Secretary Robert McDonald, recommended “appropriate administrative action” for the retaliation. But that never happened. One official is on paid leave and another remains on the job.
Whistleblowers have been instrumental in exposing widespread problems at VA hospitals. Whistleblower retaliation can have a chilling effect on those wishing to bring to light inadequacies with the way the VA delivers healthcare to our nation’s veterans.
In July, VA whistleblowers detailed the ways they have been retaliated against during a Congressional hearing. The hearing followed an Office of Special Counsel (OSC) letter sent to President Obama and Congress saying it had received more than 50 VA whistleblower complaints. In the letter, OSC said that complaints are often defended as being “harmless errors” that do not affect patient care, an approach that prevents the VA “from acknowledging the severity of systemic problems and from taking the necessary steps to provide quality care to veterans.”
The Project for Government Oversight (POGO) and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) jointly created a website that allows insiders and veterans to anonymously report problems at VA hospitals. In May the Inspector General for the VA issued a subpoena demanding a list of around 800 anonymous whistleblowers collected by the site. POGO and IAVA, which failed to comply with the subpoena, said that the whistleblowers fear retaliation from the VA.
Recent news about continued long waits at the Phoenix VA Hospital shows that whistleblowers are still needed. According to CBS News, a new government report describes significant delays for patients seeking urological care at the Phoenix VA. One patient died while awaiting treatment.
“A band-aid has been put on this and therefore everything’s okay? Everything’s not okay,” said VA whistleblower Dr. Sam Foote. “They still don’t have enough physicians and providers to provide medical care.”
The new whistleblower protection law contained in the omnibus budget bill guarantees whistleblower protections for VA medical staff. The bill also provides the VA with record funding ($71.4 billion).
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