Senators Seek Answers About Atlanta VA Medical Center

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and North Carolina U.S. Sen. Richard Burr recently wrote a letter to U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. In the letter, they asked Shinseki to tell them by Friday what’s being done in response to several issues that were raised in the report. The issues include: coordination of care, monitoring and program oversight. Sen. Isakson says the letter comes after a hearing held with Center officials.

“They went over their action plan they were implementing, but I want to make sure good intentions are followed up with good actions, because we’ve got to get our arms around this problem. It’s not just an Atlanta VA problem.  It’s a problem to the Veterans Administration around the country.”

Sen. Isakson says one of his main concerns is the length of time between referrals at the Center and an appointment with a private contractor.

“We’ve got to make sure we have a seamless transition on our veterans and they don’t get lost or fall between the cracks.”

It’s something the Atlanta VA Medical Center says it’s working on. Dr. Karen Drexler is the Acting Chief of the Mental Health Service Line at the Center. She says some of the changes were already in the works prior to the report but were accelerated as a result.

“Initially we were using a large contractor. We were working with 26 different providers. Recently we’ve consolidated that down to six different providers in the community and we’ve developed a close working relationship with those folks.”

Drexler also says the center is addressing its contracted mental health care by hiring additional staff to help with things like scheduling and the transition between the center and providers. She also says it’s done a number of things to address its inpatient care after a patient died of a drug overdose.

“Immediately after the death we did our own internal investigation, shored up our policy for patient escort for visitation on the unit and also for our collection of drug screen collection procedures, so that our environment is much improved and much safer.”

The Center also got a new director last month.

Isakson met Atlanta VA Director Leslie Wiggins and says he was impressed with her forthrightness and that she was troubled by the report, but the Senator says he wants to make sure the Center implements the right plan of action.

As a result, Isakson plans to hold a hearing in August to make sure the Center is following through and that similar issues don’t happen at other VA medical centers throughout the country.