A government watchdog’s claim that delays in care did not “conclusively” cause patients’ deaths at a Phoenix veterans hospital is based on medical records that cannot be trusted, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee said during a heated hearing Wednesday.
In some cases, no medical records were available for review because the patient died before receiving care, said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla.
Even so, Acting VA Inspector General Richard Griffin still reported that he could not “conclusively assert” any patient died because of delays in care.
“I have no faith that what may have been written is in fact true,” Miller said of the medical records used by the IG to assess the care of patients who died after long waits for appointments at the VA facility in Phoenix.
The IG’s final report, issued Aug. 26, confirmed widespread falsification of patient records to hide long delays in care. Previous investigations have confirmed similar manipulation of medical records.
While the IG documented phony waiting lists and poor-quality care, the final report said no provable deaths were the result.
How that language got in the final report triggered angry exchanges between Griffin and several committee members.
The language absolving VA officials of patient deaths was not in the original draft of the report but was in the final version.
Miller pressed Griffin on how the sentence containing the language got there. Griffin insisted that the sentence was inserted in late July after a senior executive in his office questioned whether investigators found evidence of preventable patient deaths.
If not, the report should say so, the unnamed IG official said, according to Griffin.
No one at VA had anything to do with the inclusion of that language, Griffin said.
There were multiple drafts of the report, including the first version which was sent to the veteran’s committee after repeated requests from Miller and other members, Griffin said.
Only minor changes sought by VA administrators were inserted in the final report. Some changes sought by the agency were rejected, according to Griffin.
That assertion triggered a heated exchange with Miller, who said committee members sought the draft copy that was sent to VA officials for review and comment.
Griffin insisted the committee asked for the first version, not necessarily the one sent to agency officials.
“You knew what the request was,” Miller told Griffin. “What we were trying to get is how did that get inserted from the draft to the final. This committee is going to get to the truth.”
Griffin’s investigators reviewed medical records of almost 300 patients who died while on hospital waiting lists in Phoenix.
Not included in those reviews are first-time patients who sought treatment but didn’t receive it because there were no initial appointments available.
Since those veterans were not treated, there would be no VA medical records to review, said Dr. John Daigh, assistant inspector general for healthcare inspections.
Washington Examiner Watchdog intern Sarah Westwood contributed to this report.
