VA reassigns officials, will investigate maggots

WASHINGTON -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi reassigned two administrators and launched investigations this week following a medical journal's report that maggots infested the noses of two comatose patients at a Kansas City, Mo., hospital.

According to the Archives of Internal Medicine report, the Kansas City VA Medical Center was so overrun with mice and flies in 1998 that mice sometimes dashed over employees' feet in the hospital chief's offices.

"VA has an obligation to provide quality health care to America's veterans," Principi said. "Failure to maintain sanitary standards is unacceptable, both with employees and with managers charged with maintaining standards."

Principi ordered two reviews by the VA's inspector general, who functions as an agency watchdog. Investigators are to determine the condition of the Kansas City facility and whether any problems have interfered with patient treatment as well as the adequacy of leadership and supervision at the central and regional levels.

Temporary duty in D.C.

Saying he had learned that VA hospital officials in Kansas City had failed to correct the unsanitary conditions, Principi ordered the removal of the director and deputy director for the regional network, which includes Missouri, Kansas and Southern Illinois.

The managers, Director Patricia Crosetti and Deputy Director Matt Kelly, were assigned temporary duties in Washington pending the outcome of the reviews.

An aide to Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said Principi called the senator at his Mexico, Mo., home Thursday morning to say he was ordering the reassignments and investigations.

"It is essential that we restore the confidence of our veteran population in our VA facilities regardless of how much time has passed since this incident occurred or what was done to prevent a reoccurrence," Bond wrote the VA inspector general, Richard Griffin, on Thursday.

Hospital officials have said the problem has been fixed and that the facility scored 99 out of 100 during an October 2001 inspection by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospital Organizations.