Department of Veterans Affairs officials at nearly every level knew for years about sterilization lapses and equipment shortfalls at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center, according to an article on the USA Today website.
Local, regional and national officials had been informed of the issues repeatedly since 2013, but an Inspector General's office report concluded “a culture of complacency and a sense of futility pervaded offices at multiple levels.”
Investigators found more than 1,000 boxes of unsecured documents that contained veterans’ personal information — including medical records — in storage facilities, the basement and a dumpster.
The investigation also uncovered more than 500,000 items which had been sitting for years in an off-site warehouse, including $80,000 worth of refrigerators, $25,000 worth of blood pressure cuffs, and 185 beds the hospital had acquired but found unusable. Two forklifts purchased for $44,000 in 2013 for use in the warehouse were too big to actually operate there, so hospital staff just parked them.
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