Augusta VA Center Still Faces Struggles
AUGUSTA | A year after thousands of delayed gastrointestinal procedures at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center led to three cancer-related deaths, the Augusta hospital still lacks permanent leadership and a former whistleblower continues to lobby for accountability at the facility.
Dr. Raymond Kostromin, a former primary-care physician at the Augusta hospital, wrote a letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald on Nov. 14, stating the initial Inspector General investigation he requested in January did not result in justice for the veterans that use this facility for their health care.
Kostromin claimed the hospitals former associate director, Toby Rose, and chiefs of staff, Drs. Luke Stapleton and Michael Spencer, failed to schedule 4,580 primary-care referrals for endoscopies and did nothing to address the problem since a backlog began to form in September 2012.
He received a partial report from the Inspector General this month, but the office said the allegations were only partially substantiated and had since been resolved through hospital management completing all required actions recommended for improvement.
All three of the administrators Kostromin accused, along with Director Robert Hamilton, have resigned in the past year, but permanent replacements have yet to be found, said Pete Scovill, hospital spokesman.
It is simply shameful, Kostromin wrote. I am tired of hearing how these men could not simply be fired when I was for far less.
Kostromin, now employed at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Georgia, was terminated from the Augusta VA in May 2013 on allegations he stole medicine and plastic surgery. A Richmond County Superior Court judge ruled in April the allegations lacked sufficient evidence, and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel continues to work on a VA whistleblower retaliation case for Kostromin, according to a November email sent to the doctor.
Kostromin still questions whether the hospital was able to clear more than 4,500 endoscopies in four months as claimed when reports of longstanding delays surfaced in the media last November.
The Augusta VA said nearly half of the veterans whose screening and surveillance endoscopies were delayed (2,059) either did not require a procedure, declined treatment, moved and were advised to contact their care provider, or didnt respond to the hospital. The remaining veterans who faced delays, hospital figures show, had procedures performed either in-house (1,672) or at an outside facility under a purchased-care or fee agreement (201), or the veterans were provided a self-administered fecal screening and scheduled for surgery (574).
The hospital said 74 veterans who needed screening and/or endoscopies were scheduled for future appointments with a clinically appropriate date based on their needs.
This is hardly clearing the backlog, Kostromin said.
The doctor said he will not stop fighting.
Thanks to these men, I no longer even work at this facility and family and friends of mine have repeatedly told me to drop this issue, as they see the toll it has taken on me, but I will not, he wrote to McDonald. Of course, if your upcoming visit to Augusta does not result in any further discipline, I will finally stop.
Secretary McDonald has not announced a visit to Augusta. The VAs Inspector General has issued a draft report to department management about problems in Augusta, but spokeswoman Catherine Gromek said it has not been released publicly.
Tags: Veterans News
