A VA hospital in Virginia lost track of $1.8 million of equipment and supplies that were eventually found in an unmarked second-floor storage room and a warehouse basement, according to an article on the Connecting Vets website.
The items were stored for an "undetermined" amount of time and staff were "unable to locate" some of the items, a recent watchdog report says.
Last year, a tip came into the VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) alleging that more than $500,000 in medical equipment was left "unused" in an "unmarked operating room storage area" or in a warehouse "for several years" at the Hampton, Va. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.
For two years, the hospital did not have "an effective inventory system in place" to track operating room supplies because the staff was not always using the inventory program and management wasn't monitoring its use, the report said.
What 'Light' Daily Cleaning of Patient Rooms Misses
Sprinkler Compliance: Navigating Code Mandates, Renovation Triggers and Patient Safety
MUSC Board of Trustees Approves $1.1B South Carolina Cancer Hospital
Study Outlines Hand Hygiene Guidelines for EVS Staff
McCarthy Completes $65M Sharp Rees-Stealy Kearny Mesa MOB Modernization