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Augusta VA director to resign [The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.](Augusta Chronicle (GA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 29--Robert Hamilton will resign as the director of the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Center, leaving the embattled Augusta hospital without a leader for the more than 40,000 veterans in Georgia and South Carolina who depend on the federal facility for health care. Hospital spokesman Pete Scovill confirmed in a news release late Tuesday that Hamilton had announced to the Augusta VA's 2,500 employees his plans to step down Nov. 30 to "focus on more personal goals." Hamilton is the fourth Augusta VA executive to resign in 18 months, after the departures of chiefs of staff Dr. Luke Stapleton and Michael Spencer and associate director Richard "Toby" Rose. Scovill said an acting director will be appointed to "ensure continuity of operations" until a permanent replacement is found for the hospital that has an annual budget of $379 million and serves veterans from 17 counties in Georgia and seven in South Carolina. Hamilton was appointed to lead the Augusta VA in July 2012 and was immediately tasked with fixing a gastrointestinal program botched so badly the hospital had to re-engineer its floor plan and bring in extra personnel and equipment to handle a delayed caseload that topped 5,100 consultations. The large-scale effort, launched one month after Hamilton's arrival from Wilford Hall Medical Center in Texas, helped the facility determine appropriate treatment plans for 4,580 patients and eliminate its backlog of unresolved consults in January. Those efforts, however, came after three cancer patients died in 2011 and four others experienced worsening conditions -- failures from which the VA has struggled to recover. The seven "adverse outcomes" are among 16 the Augusta VA has reported in the past two fiscal years -- 11 in 2013 and five in 2014 -- for procedures and treatment in primary and specialty care, surgery, gastrointestinal, nursing services, dental and radiology programs. The hospital was one of 112 VA facilities nationwide flagged in June for "further review" after federal auditors discovered in May that more than 15 percent of schedulers at the hospital felt instructed to enter an appointment date other than the one patients requested and that only 21 percent of staff were correctly using the online waiting list. The incorrect usage of the hospital's scheduling system reportedly led to 134 patients who have enrolled at the Augusta hospital in the past 10 years never having appointments and 63 waiting for initial appointments 90 days or more after requesting them. The gastrointestinal deaths have drawn the most scrutiny, leading the House Committee on Veterans Affairs in September 2013 to launch an investigation into the administration of Hamilton's predecessor -- Rebecca Wiley -- to hold accountable those who caused harm to veterans. The committee requested the VA provide all records reflecting performance reviews, pay bonuses and disciplinary actions issued to Wiley since 2007, but found that only one employee, Stapleton, was punished by receiving "verbal counseling." The doctor was allowed to return to his former job as a hematologist in March 2013 after voluntarily resigning from the chief of staff position, while the VA paid Wiley $76,000 to retire on the condition she dismiss allegations against the VA of wrongful or unlawful conduct, according to a confidential settlement obtained last month by The Augusta Chronicle. Records later provided by the VA's Washington headquarters showed both received $14,000 in performance bonuses from 2010 to 2012. ___ (c)2014 The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.) Visit The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.) at chronicle.augusta.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |