VA inspection reveals patient develops ulcer, loses wheelchair during Augusta stay

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http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2014-02-13/va-inspection-reveals-patient-develops-ulcer-loses-wheelchair-during-augusta?v=1392329354

VA inspection reveals patient develops ulcer, loses wheelchair during Augusta stay
By Wesley Brown Staff Writer
Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014 7:44 PM
Last updated 10:09 PM

Poor patient care and lapses in communication between facility staffers led to a veteran developing a pressure ulcer and losing his wallet and motorized wheelchair during his stay last year at the Charlie Nor­wood VA Medical Center in Au­gusta, according to an inspector general’s report released this week.

The report, issued Wednesday, comes less than three months after hospital Director Robert Hamilton revealed that delays in more than 5,000 diagnostic, screening and surveillance endoscopies led to three cancer-related deaths.

The latest report does not link any issues to fatalities but does state that the veteran, who was in his 60s but not identified, visited the hospital in April for a leg amputation and left 80 days later for a hospital in Alabama with a pressure ulcer on his tailbone that could not be classified for diagnostic purposes.

The Department of Veterans Af­fairs’ inspector general office, which visited the Augusta VA on Aug. 12, discovered through interviews and medical records that staffers and physicians provided “neither accurate nor sufficient information” about the patient’s treatment and “failed to properly document, track and protect” his personal belongings, the report states.