VA Malpractice

[Berta]

https://www.disabledveterans.org/2018/04/13/va-put-veterans-lives-risk-not-running-background-checks/

I think sometimes I gripe too much here about the way my husband died ( due to VA health care).

Then I read something like this and feel I don’t gripe here enough-

 

This article is old news-  ( published May 2016)I just don’t have time this minute to find the latest tally on VA malpractice:

In Part:

“The number of legal settlements made by the Department of Veterans Affairs has more than tripled over the past five years largely due to a spike in medical malpractice cases and bungled construction projects, the Daily News has learned.

The yearly total payments skyrocketed to $338 million in 2015 from $98 million in 2011, according to Treasury Department data obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

The cases include multiple examples of blown diagnosis, botched procedures and substandard care, records show.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/legal-settlements-veterans-affairs-triple-article-1.2654179

A more recent case is here:

https://www.disabledveterans.org/2018/04/09/500000-settlement-veterans-affairs-allergic-reaction-medication/

and here:

http://www.wric.com/news/8-investigates/veteran-settles-medical-malpractice-lawsuit-with-mcguire-va-medical-center_201803200219097/1059820257

Settlement $750,000  due to stroke during VA surgery-

We had a new member here recently  with a very similar event and I gave him a lot of info but he has not returned.... yet

but maybe he didn't  like my advice-to get an IMO/IME.

 

What these malpractice figures do not account for is the amount of SC comp or DIC the VA pays out for malpractice.

1151 “as if SC” compensation is added to the total of all compensation in VA reports to Congress.

I helped a friend get 100% 1151 comp and he has had that for 20 years….a tidy sum.

I guess my point here is that many vets who feel their medical care is inappropriate, simply do not take the steps to find out whether it is or not.

It takes getting an independent medical opinion, and if any malpractice occurred and  is found to have caused significant other disabilities ( or death), there are plenty of lawyers on the internet who handle these types of cases filed against the VA.

Veterans who have gone to the Federal District Courts either after a FTCA denial or after a refusal of the VA’s offer,  have gotten more and even the VA itself has made very large payments:

http://attorneyjonpowell.com/taking-on-the-va-a-1-million-settlement-against-all-odds/:

Maybe the new Secretary will look into this issue. I have asked 3 Secretarys so far to do something about it, and the H VAC.

The doctors who killed my husband were removed from one VAMC and sent to another. In the last VA death incident I know of locally, one doctor simply quit.

If this doctor was charged under the NPDB mandate, for any settement with the survivors, there will be a public record of that and it will show up on a background check if they try to get another job as a physucian.

However, part of my gripes to Congress included the fact that OGC does not aways honor the NPDB mandate ( in my FTCA case  and other cases they didnt), so those doctors 

go on to practice on other VA patients and there is no way a background check would even reveal they committed malpractice during their VA employment.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2018 by Berta
added more

[Vync]

Wow... Why is it that none of this comes as a surprise?

[vetquest]

In 1986 the VA diagnosed me with AIDS.  In 1994 the VA took me off of blood pressure medication without stepping me down, I lived through one or two weeks of hell and did not understand at the time that the removal of the medicine caused this.  Excuse me for not trusting the VA.

[Buck52]

This is just another reason Veterans need to be heard and not Ignored.

It's getting to where we all need to keep up with our own healthcare & check things out b/c it seems like the VA Dr's just want to prescribe anything fast to get us out  and that can become dangerous. 

[Berta]

And although we might be getting a Doctor again as the Sec, he doesn't have a clue on the real  VA yet.

I have begun a letter to him that has 13 issues so far that he might want to get up to speed on.

If I was a member of the committee that does the confirmation hearing, these are issues I sure would question him on-

such as the potential new AO presumptives.....and when Vietnam veterans can expect a decision on that.

Since he is still the President's physician ,I assume his address is:

Admiral Ronny L. Jackson, MD

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC  20500

 

 

 

 

 

[Solo]

It is much harder to get a settlement from the VA general counsel for medical malpractice these days without an expert witness affidavit. They tightened up on medical malpractice claims.

You cannot get a doctor's license suspended or revoke without proving he/she breached the standard of care. The only way to prove the doctor breached the standard of care is through an expert witness affidavit from a similarly situated doctor.

You didn't provide an expert witness affidavit, so the doctor can continue to practice medicine at the VA.

If your claim is not settle by the VA general counsel, then you will have to deal with the US attorney in federal district court. Those settlements in the news are from lawsuits filed in federal district court. They had expert witnesses affidavits and their case could not be dismissed during summary judgment. Getting an expert witness affidavit is difficult and expensive. If you don't have the expert witness affidavit when you file in court, then your court case will be dismissed and the United States pays nothing.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9821079355189942745&q=ftca+veteran+affidavit&hl=en&scisbd=2&as_sdt=40006

Edited May 29, 2018 by Solo

[Berta]

Not sure who your  reply is for-

I won my malpractice claims many years ago, then subsequently found more malpractice and won those claims as well---Wrongful death of my husband.

The problem in those days was that most of the malpracticing doctors , as in my husband's case, were simply removed from one VAMC to another one....if the VA avoided the NPDB mandate.

The VA General Counsel did NOT honor the NPBD mandate-whereby these doctors were supposed to be listed in the NY State Data bank of disciplined doctors....every state has this type of data bank.

This is exactly how VA gets away with  hiding their true malpractice statistics from Congress .

The VA also pays 1151 malpractice as "compensation" from the SC comp fund.

I used to get 1151 DIC which has been chcnaged to direct SC death SC comp due to Nehmer 2010.

But the stats remained the same- in BVA's annual report to Congress their SC Compensation statistics includes 1151 payments.

That way neither Congress not the public really know how much malpractice VA commits. GAO knows some of it and of course I have written to Congress and POTUS about it

but  many vets who might be victimized by VA health care might not even know it until it is too late.

Steps towards privatization will in my opinion, change all of this, and probably reveal  some serious "smoking guns" of piss poor VA health care, as new private treating doctors are privy to established  VA medical records.