Bay Pines VA Medical Center
A federal investigation of the Bay Pines VA Medical Center in Florida has revealed a number of procedural improprieties that may be the cause of substandard care for patients at the hospital. According to a report filed by the Veterans Affairs inspector general, the facility's physicians are inadequately supplied with medical equipment. The investigation also discovered numerous errors with a new multi-million dollar computer system.
Ordered by VA secretary Anthony J. Principi, the investigation uncovered information that indicates hospital officials have known of problems equipping surgeons with proper medical equipment since 2001 but have failed to make changes. Investigators also discovered dried blood on instruments before surgeries were to take place.
Major problems were found with the hospital's Core Financial and Logistics System (CoreFLS), a nearly $500 million computer system designed to track and control finances, inventories and payouts. Because files pertaining to the hospital's agreement with CoreFLS' contractor BearingPoint are missing, questions remain as to exactly how the hospital was awarded the contract.
Many employees are improperly trained with CoreFLS. The inspector general reported that at one point, the hospital's water and sewer service was almost disconnected because of failure to pay a $160 bill.
According to the report, there is still a significant amount of work to be completed before the system operates properly. The probe concluded that VA management needs to act immediately to correct the computer system's flaws in order to justify the $4 million per month the VA is paying for CoreFLS.
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-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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