The head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that he would consider meeting with whistleblowers at a veterans’ hospital in Illinois, after a federal review found significant flaws in the VA’s internal investigation of medical negligence at the facility.
Sen. Mark Kirk asked VA Secretary Robert McDonald on Thursday to meet with whistleblowers at the Hines hospital during his upcoming trip to Chicago.
"I haven’t been to Hines, and I would like to go," McDonald said at a hearing of the veterans affairs appropriations subcommittee, which Kirk chairs.
Hines employees have said the hospital manipulates its waiting lists to hide the fact that veterans are often forced to wait months or longer to meet with doctors.
The Office of the Special Counsel said last month that the VA inspector general’s recent investigations into the allegations at Hines and the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center were incomplete and sought to discredit and attack whistleblowers.
"The OIG investigations that the VA submitted in response to both referrals are incomplete. They do not respond to the issues that the whistleblowers raised," wrote Carolyn Lerner, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, in a letter to President Obama in February.
Lerner said the inspector general’s report on Hines also "demonstrate[d] hostility" toward the employee who went public with the complaints "as an attempt to minimize her allegations."
Germaine Clarno, the Hines social worker who first raised concerns about the wait list manipulations, said during an interview on Thursday that the Office of Special Counsel’s finding were "a vindication for a lot of whistleblowers around the country." But Clarno, who is also head of the AFGE Local 781 union, said problems remain at the hospital.
"We still have wait time issues at Hines," she said. "And because the OIG did not do a thorough investigation, those manipulations are still going on, because nobody was held accountable."
Clarno said she asked McDonald to visit Hines during his trip next week and hopes he will meet with her and other staffers.
"I can sit down with him and show him exactly what’s going on. And employees at Hines are willing to sit with him because it’s continuing, it hasn’t changed," she said.
Clarno was also critical of Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.), who released a letter this week asking for a meeting with McDonald to discuss the whistleblower allegations. Clarno said Duckworth, who is running for Senate against Kirk, ignored evidence of wrongdoing at Hines for years and her interest in the issue now is "too late."
"I wish she would have [tried to meet with the VA secretary] when I first went to her. It’s too late," said Clarno, who says Duckworth dismissed her allegations during a private meeting several years ago.
"The bottom line is we need accountability, we need oversight, we need people to come in, a leader at Hines," added Clarno. "We need someone to come in who’s dedicated to making change."