Taking care of our Veterans
I published a blog two years ago today taking issue with the Liar-in-Chief's plan for "fixing" the VA. After being sworn in, he issued an executive order that created the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, later made permanent by legislation.
As of 10/25/2017, that office reports that 363 VA employees have been suspended for 14 or more days. 57 have been demoted. 1,095 have been removed from the VA's employee workforce. There were over 377,000 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs as of FY2016. For the mathematically challenged, that's roughly 0.4% of the workforce that has been disciplined.
Seems like progress. Except for the case of one Patricia Waible. Back in July of 2016 she was a nurse's aide at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, MA. She was supposed to make hourly checks on a patient by the name of Bill Nutter.
He was a veteran of the Vietnam War who had been exposed to Agent Orange during his service there. He was also a retired police detective. In July of 2016 when he was admitted to the VA facility in Bedford, he had just lost his remaining leg due to the complications of diabetes. He was also suffering from a condition that could cause his heart to stop beating without warning. That was why hourly checks had been ordered.
But Ms Waible was far too busy playing video games on her computer to be bothered with those bed checks. Bill Nutter's heart stopped and he died. At the time, Ms Waible signed a statement that she had performed the required checks and stood by that story until confronted with proof she had not left her computer the entire time she was on duty. Then she confessed to what she had done.
How did the VA respond? They transferred her to a different job, one in the cafeteria. And there she remained until September of this year when the Boston Globe contacted the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin. Ms Waible was suspended with pay pending an investigation and Secretary Shulkin plans to seek her termination.
Why did it take a newspaper's action to get the VA to investigate? They knew something was wrong. The nurse who discovered Mr. Nutter had died in his bed signaled to her supervisor that he was gone with the "slit throat" gesture. She was on probation and terminated, so the fact that something had gone horribly wrong was not unknown.
* * *
Civil service and union protections are a good thing, to a point. There is point beyond which they aren't such a good thing.
Remember the name Mark Berndt? Or perhaps the Miramonte Elementary School? In January of 2012, Berndt was arrested on multiple charges of spoon-feeding semen and giving semen-laced cookies to elementary students at Miramonte.
LAUSD suspended Berndt back in February of 2011, two months after the investigation had begun into his behavior with students. They tried to fire him but a settlement was reached in June of 2011 that resulted in his being paid $40,000 and being allowed to resign.
Berndt pleaded no-contest and was sent to prison for 25 years. The deal that allowed him to resign kept his retirement benefits intact. Because his conviction took place before January of 2013, he will apparently keep those benefits.
It is an uneasy balancing act, protecting public employees from wrongful termination while still allowing those who have earned firing to be shown the door.
There is no possible justification for allowing a VA employee who couldn't be bothered to get up from her video game playing to check on a patient to remain on the payroll for more than a year after what she did was uncovered. The system that allowed that to happen can't be fixed by firing just her. Those who attempted to keep the death of Bill Nutter a secret all need to face the consequences of their actions.
As of 10/25/2017, that office reports that 363 VA employees have been suspended for 14 or more days. 57 have been demoted. 1,095 have been removed from the VA's employee workforce. There were over 377,000 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs as of FY2016. For the mathematically challenged, that's roughly 0.4% of the workforce that has been disciplined.
Seems like progress. Except for the case of one Patricia Waible. Back in July of 2016 she was a nurse's aide at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, MA. She was supposed to make hourly checks on a patient by the name of Bill Nutter.
He was a veteran of the Vietnam War who had been exposed to Agent Orange during his service there. He was also a retired police detective. In July of 2016 when he was admitted to the VA facility in Bedford, he had just lost his remaining leg due to the complications of diabetes. He was also suffering from a condition that could cause his heart to stop beating without warning. That was why hourly checks had been ordered.
But Ms Waible was far too busy playing video games on her computer to be bothered with those bed checks. Bill Nutter's heart stopped and he died. At the time, Ms Waible signed a statement that she had performed the required checks and stood by that story until confronted with proof she had not left her computer the entire time she was on duty. Then she confessed to what she had done.
How did the VA respond? They transferred her to a different job, one in the cafeteria. And there she remained until September of this year when the Boston Globe contacted the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin. Ms Waible was suspended with pay pending an investigation and Secretary Shulkin plans to seek her termination.
Why did it take a newspaper's action to get the VA to investigate? They knew something was wrong. The nurse who discovered Mr. Nutter had died in his bed signaled to her supervisor that he was gone with the "slit throat" gesture. She was on probation and terminated, so the fact that something had gone horribly wrong was not unknown.
* * *
Civil service and union protections are a good thing, to a point. There is point beyond which they aren't such a good thing.
Remember the name Mark Berndt? Or perhaps the Miramonte Elementary School? In January of 2012, Berndt was arrested on multiple charges of spoon-feeding semen and giving semen-laced cookies to elementary students at Miramonte.
LAUSD suspended Berndt back in February of 2011, two months after the investigation had begun into his behavior with students. They tried to fire him but a settlement was reached in June of 2011 that resulted in his being paid $40,000 and being allowed to resign.
Berndt pleaded no-contest and was sent to prison for 25 years. The deal that allowed him to resign kept his retirement benefits intact. Because his conviction took place before January of 2013, he will apparently keep those benefits.
It is an uneasy balancing act, protecting public employees from wrongful termination while still allowing those who have earned firing to be shown the door.
There is no possible justification for allowing a VA employee who couldn't be bothered to get up from her video game playing to check on a patient to remain on the payroll for more than a year after what she did was uncovered. The system that allowed that to happen can't be fixed by firing just her. Those who attempted to keep the death of Bill Nutter a secret all need to face the consequences of their actions.
posted by me at 3:44 PM
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