VA at Bay Pines in St Petersburg, FL. gets a Watchdog, because of their mismanagement at the highest levels!.
See article below.
Gimp
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Bay Pines to be base for agency watchdog
At a $5-million cost, prodded by the medical center's woes, the
Veterans Affairs inspector general will open a state office.
By PAUL DE LA GARZA, Times Staff Writer
Published April 2, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - The Veterans Affairs inspector general will open a permanent office in Florida in response to the problems at Bay Pines VA Medical Center, House Appropriations Chairman C.W. Bill YoungS said Thursday night.
The office will be at Bay Pines in St. Petersburg and funded with a
$5-million appropriation in next year's federal budget, the Largo
Republican said. "An IG presence in Florida would help to better
track situations like CoreFLS," Young said, referring to the
troubled computer system at Bay Pines.
Young said he had spoken with Richard Griffin, the VA inspector
general, on Wednesday and that they had agreed that opening an office was a good idea because of the large VA presence in Florida.
The VA has 63 facilities in the state, including hospitals,
outpatient clinics, national cemeteries and regional offices, Young
said.
The discussion with Griffin, Young said, was prompted by the
problems at Bay Pines.
The hospital is the target of multiple federal inquiries as a result
of recent articles in the St. Petersburg Times. Investigators are
looking into management issues and the trial computer system.
After hearing from VA Secretary Anthony Principi during a
congressional hearing Wednesday about management problems that have been allowed to fester for years at Bay Pines, Young said he wanted a better system of accountability within the VA.
He said the notion for a permanent VA inspector general office in
Florida was based on a model by the Department of Health and Human Services. That agency expanded the presence of its inspector general after one of the largest Medicare fraud cases in the state in the late 1980s. Dozens of doctors, medical equipment companies and sales representatives cheated the Medicare system out of tens of millions of dollars.
An investigation led to multiple convictions, Young said. The agency expanded its office in Orlando and created an office in Clearwater.
"Having gone trough this before with Health and Human Services, I know it worked very well for the government and the taxpayer," Young said.
Young said that details of the VA inspector general plan, including
staffing levels and the date for opening the office, are being
worked out.
In February, the VA inspector general launched an investigation of management problems at Bay Pines and the computer system known as the Core Financial and Logistics System, or CoreFLS. Congressional committees in the House and Senate are also investigating.
A preliminary report by the VA inspector general has found problems with the hospital's surgical supply division dating to January 2001. Problems also have been found with the implementation of the $472-million computer system, which was installed at Bay Pines last October.
Taken together, the problems have resulted in scores of surgery
delays at the hospital.
The computer system had been scheduled to be rolled out nationally within two years, but is on hold until the problems at Bay Pines have been resolved.
At the hearing on Wednesday, Principi told Young it is unclear if
the computer system could be salvaged. An independent assessment is expected to be completed within 60 days.
Principi has reassigned the computer project director, John
O'Connor, and is expected to make more management changes in the next few weeks.
- Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report. Paul de la Garza can be reached at
delagarza@sptimes.com or 813-226-3432.
[Last modified April 2, 2004, 01
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