VA Secretary Asks Iraq War Veteran: 'What Have You Done?'

[Fern]

Nope. They can only badger him and make him look bad.

That's what I'm thinking. From what I see they've done everything they can.

Fern

 

[fskimospy]

Stop saying "regulate". Congress has oversight. That is different.

What can do they with their oversight power? This is what I have been asking and you've been dodging.

Oversight committees can generally do 2 things: (1) Make budget recommendations to the Ways & Means Committee and (2) Investigate.

No where the hell do you see where I said budget powers don't exists? Hint: You won't be able to find it; I didn't say that. I said the budget is not going to be used to 'manage' the construction of the hospital. We both know why it's ill-advised and won't, and shouldn't be used, for this particular problem. If you're clueless about this, say so. I can spell it out.

Now, beside the budget power the Congressional committee can hold hearings. This means they can ask questions, even issue subpoenas if need be to get info.

Now explain how in the hell you fix the hospital construction project with the power to ask questions?

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Congress DID do it's job. If the hospital problem went unnoticed and unaddressed THAT would be on Congress. They've done their job.

Fern

I will not stop saying regulate. Congress has the ability to both fund agencies and determine how they spend those funds. I'm sorry if this means you have to accept that congress has some responsibility for how agencies are run, but I'm sure you'll get past that as soon as the democrats control congress again.

Should I just give up on you saying that congress should ever be responsible for anything?
What if a congressman was somehow created as part of the Big Bang and existed from the beginning of the universe until today. Would he be responsible for any part of any federal agency then?

 

[fskimospy]

That's what I'm thinking. From what I see they've done everything they can.

Fern

Interesting. So then I assume you will be endorsing obama's budget in full and will accept any decision he makes as the one that must happen. After all, congress can only badger and make the executive look bad. They have no other powers.

Seriously, just stop. this is stupid.

 

[ivwshane]

Way to make what should have been a bipartisan issue a partisan one! Dumb ass republicans strike again.

Btw, at anytime during the hearing did the congressman ask what he could do to help?

 

[Sunburn74]

Here is my asterisk:

The VA killed my grandfather. They dropped him while moving him and he died from a blood clot not long after. The nurse who did it was not punished. It was swept aside like a harmless mistake.

Gut the VA.

I'm sorry that you lost your grandfather to medical illness in a VA hospital.

However, as someone who has experience with hospital quality improvement, I will tell you that if you go to any hospital in the country and survey any 100 nurses, you will have a near 100% reported rate of an in-hospital fall during their individual care at some point in their career. It is no different than if you survey any 100 drivers anywhere for responsible accidents within their driving lifetime, you will have a near 100% reported rate. In this country it is reported that there are about 1 million in hospital falls per year*. 20 percent of all people who have been admitted to a hospital will fall at least 1x in-hospital within the year that admission took place. Those are huge numbers which are reflected in every hospital across the country.

Should we fire every driver who gets into a car accident? Some we should; those who blatantly break established laws and protocols for example. However most drivers are following all rules and regulations at the time of their car accident.

The thing to understand is, with any in-hospital fall or any car accident, there is usually a confluence of factors from many involved parties that lead up to that event (with driving sometimes a person is a bit tired, the roads a bit slick, brakes just about ready to be replaced, tires a bit worn, visibility a bit poor, one person was in a bit of a rush, an interesting and distracting billboard flew by, etc). Hospitals have longed moved away from the model of "just fire that person" because if you ask yourself honestly if simply firing that person and getting another person will prevent that event from ever happening again, the answer in 99% of scenarios is almost always no. Rather hospitals design fail safes and mechanisms to try and limit events like in-hospital falls. However just like how car manufacturers and city laws and regulations design fail safes and mechanisms to limit car accidents, at the end of the day you can only JUST limit them because these are human systems you're talking about. These events are not harmless and therefore each one is reviewed thoroughly by hospital administrators often on a weekly basis as a means to continue to adjust their systems to prevent them. Furthermore, when harm comes to a patient in hospital, the caretakers (doctors, nurses, etc) often suffer significant psychological and social distress as a consequence (its called the secondary victim in medical error theory). There is a reason why healthcare providers have such high suicide rates; they take their jobs very very seriously and very very personally.

If the question is whether the VA has an inappropriate number of falls compared to other hospitals, the answer is no. Coincidentally and ironically enough, the VA is actually an industry leader in fall prevention research and policy because of the sheer resources they can devote to it.

*Estimate from Currie LM. Fall and injury prevention. In: Patient safety and quality. an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2008. AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043.Available at: www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/docs/CurrieL_FIP.pdf.