Federal Lawmakers Pay Visit to Embattled VA Medical Center
Chairman of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee, Congressman Jeff Miller; Senator Johnny Isakson; Congressman Phil Gingrey; Congressman John Barrow; Congressman David Scott and Congressman Paul Broun met with leaders at the Atlanta VA Medical Center Monday.
The visit comes after an internal audit linking three patient deaths in the past two years to mismanagement in the Center’s mental health programs. 
According to the audit, two patients committed suicide after seeking help from the center and its contractors and another died of a drug overdose. The audit said the center did not monitor patients inside the center adequately and cited care management and program oversight issues that contributed to patients “falling through the cracks.”
As a result, Congressman Miller says federal lawmakers had a frank discussion with the center’s leaders. Miller says the recent problems are a result of processes that were not followed and others that were not in place.
“There have to be some changes made. They have made some of those changes and they’re going to make some more.”
However, Miller says he thinks those who are currently in leadership positions at the center want to the do the right thing and don’t want see what happened occur again. He says there have been consequences as a result of the deaths, but to his knowledge no one at the Center has been let go. Miller vowed to keep looking into the matter.
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