This VA hospital could have infected hundreds of vets with deadly diseases
SUMMARY
A VA hospital in Wisconsin is under scrutiny for potentially exposing hundreds of veterans to blood-borne diseases like hepatitis and HIV. The infections are being blamed on a dentist at the Tomah VA hospital.
Tomah VA Medical Center Building 400. (Photo from Tomah VA Flickr)
According to a report by WEAU.com, 592 veterans are in the process of being informed about the potential exposure, brought about by the re-use of equipment from October 2015 to October 2016. A substitute for the dentist's regular assistant noted the unidentified dentist's actions and reported him.
The dentist has since been re-assigned to an administrative position. VA regulations require that equipment not be re-used.
"It was purposeful that he was violating VA regulations," Victoria Brahm, the acting director of the medical center, told WEAU.com. "During all of the orientation, he used all of our equipment. He used it appropriately, so it was very purposeful from what we found in our investigation that he knew exactly what he was doing, and preferred to use his own equipment against procedure."
The Tomah VA hospital came under fire in the past for allegedly over-prescribing painkillers. The hospital is providing free medical screenings and will also provide free treatment of any infections. The VA Inspector General has been notified and will be investigating to determine if criminal charges should be filed.
"We have clear evidence that we are moving forward and the people that remain here are very vested and here for the mission of taking care of veterans," Brahm told WEAU.com. "There are pockets of improvement that need to occur they still need to I'll be honest, and we are aware of where they are and we are dealing with them as quickly as we can."
This is not the first VA medical center to have issues. A VA medical center in Phoenix, Arizona, used "separate waiting lists" to hide a backlog of cases, leading to at least 200 deaths. A VA center in Chicago reportedly had a cockroach infestation that was so bad, some of the bugs got into food intended for the patients.
