Focus: Environmental Services

DC veterans hospital still dealing with problems

Facility sited for 'culture of complacency'


A year after leaders of a Washington, D.C., veterans hospital were warned of problems, deficiencies still persist, according to an article on the Stars & Stripes website.

Issues include a broken refrigerator in the blood bank. dirty syringe bottles, unsanitary equipment and rooms in disarray.

As recently as March 5, the Food and Drug Administration censured the hospital’s blood bank. A separate inspection at the end of January concluded the facility still posed a risk to patient safety.

In April 2017, investigators with the VA Inspector General’s Office (IG) had just started a review of the DC hospital and found enough wrong with the facility that they stopped their work and immediately intervened. The IG detailed problems found during multiple site visits in 2017 and blamed a “culture of complacency” for widespread failures.

Read the article.



April 13, 2018


Topic Area: Environmental Services


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