The “Duty to Speak Up” was the theme of this month’s Safety Forum at the Manchester Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Medical Center. The people at the table seemed well-intentioned, but if you’ve read my previous series about what happens to whistleblowers at the VA, you know speaking up leads to an endless loop of broken promises, retaliation, and a black hole of a system that is tasked with investigation and protection of the very people who have the courage to “speak up.”
Thanks to Ron Fawkes for the Op-Ed. Send yours to steve@granitegrok.com
Since the publication of my articles on this website, I’ve been contacted by other whistleblowers and continue to speak with employees at the Manchester VA. The stories are disturbing and not surprising at the same time. There is one common theme in each story; each time a front-line employee “speaks up” and brings a concern to management, management fails. Many have brought concerns to upper management, Equal Opportunity (EEO), the union, human resources, and federal oversight agencies, and the failures are staggering. I’ve attached a grid I received from the federal oversight agency Office of Inspector General (OIG). Obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), this document shows how many complaints were received by the OIG about the Manchester VA and how many were investigated. Most years the number of investigations is zero, with one exception when Manchester VA, and the national VA were under intense public scrutiny. It further breaks down statistics by employee or veteran whistleblower; most are employees. Why are these cases not investigated? I made every effort to answer this question with my case, and I was stonewalled by the OIG.
As a whistleblower, I feel obliged to discuss some themes the Veteran community should be aware of when getting medical care at the Manchester VA. The condition of the building has not improved much since the last flood. Senator Hassan asked the VA to address this in this letter to the Secretary of the VA almost a year ago, and we’re still waiting. While recovering from the flood, the VA contracted with Concord Hospital to provide operating room (OR) space. This was more of a public-facing project and the staff performed very few surgeries. A similar stunt was executed after the 2016 flood, where the then Manchester director informed the media the VA was doing surgical cases at Catholic Medical Center, while in reality, they were doing one or two cases a day, wasting money and resources, similar to this Concord Hospital arrangement.
Now, the OR is open, but they face some of the same issues whistleblowers in 2016 raised with infection control. Several staff have raised concerns about hand washing and improper, non-hygienic, procedures, but when perpetrated by a member of management, the practice, I’ve seen repeatedly, is to protect management at all costs.
Protecting management is standard practice. A new example of this is when a fellow whistleblower left the VA after exhausting internal reporting systems for bullying and retaliation after reporting deficiencies. The bureaucratic system failed again to include EEO, the union, and upper management. Punished with a poor performance review and fed up with harassment, this employee left the VA. But, in what can be characterized as coercion, the employee and the union were asked to sign a contract to withdraw all complaints and grievances against the Manchester VA and its leadership in exchange for an outstanding performance review, along with the monetary award associated with that rating. It seems the VA is only out to protect themselves and management, not the Veterans. Why would the union (National Association of Government Employees) advise a whistleblower to sign a contract to drop all charges and not file any future charges against the VA?
Another whistleblower is facing retaliation for raising patient safety concerns. Rather than address these concerns, management is punishing the employee and the Veterans by taking resources away from the team this person serves on, which is causing harm to Veterans and forcing the use of community care dollars in a manner that is not fiscally responsible. Yes, you read that right: Veterans are being harmed by withholding services to punish a whistleblower.
Good employees leave the VA all the time. Another former employee told me how, during an exit interview with a human resources (HR) representative, they were told assaultive behavior and racist remarks by a manager are not something to be concerned about. It is not surprising knowing others have reported gender discrimination that was ignored.
The federal oversight agencies, OIG, OAWP, etc., have not helped either. In fact, I’ve learned one of the concerns I attempted to blow the whistle on has come full circle, and a medical error has occurred. It’s likely the team reviewing the case had no idea several employees warned of this. It is also likely the public will never hear of this case as the VA will undoubtedly not report this event to the Joint Commission or the professional board as a private hospital would.
Maybe the new administration will bring some accountability and sanity to the federal agencies; maybe not. But, at the Manchester VA, there is a group forming and we will be looking at solutions to this travesty in the care of New Hampshire’s Veterans. Stay tuned!
