'Threat to life' found in review of Seattle-area VA hospitals

[TechBear_Seattle]

Source: Associated Press via Seattle Times

TACOMA — Puget Sound-area Veterans Affairs hospitals and a clinic could lose their accreditation because of a review indicating conditions last month posed an "immediate threat to life," officials say.

The finding was issued after routine inspections by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations of Chicago at the American Lake VA Hospital south of Tacoma, the VA Medical Center in Seattle and a VA outpatient clinic in Bremerton, all operated by the VA Puget Sound Health Care System.

The panel, which monitors patient care in the nation's 5,000-plus hospitals, issued a "preliminary denial of accreditation" May 17, the last day of a four-day review, commission Vice President Joseph L. Cappiello told The News Tribune of Tacoma.

The action was not a threat to seek closure of the two hospitals or the clinic. Cappiello and other officials would not release the report or give details on the findings as a matter of policy.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003747540_webvahospital14m.html

---

You gotta love how the Junta "supports the troops." (Because if you don't love it, you are helping the terrorists and thus a traitor.)

[Warpy]

1. This is what happens when the rich can opt out of a system

they make damned sure it's underfunded for everyone who has to use it.

I've worked within the VA system and know first hand what the underfunding of the system does: buildings out of repair, shortages of vital equipment and supplies, short staffing, overcrowding.

Any universal health care system has to be truly universal and the VA system has to be a cautionary note as to why.

If the rich have to use it, they will fund it. If not, they'll make sure the rest of us have little available to use.

[Lisa]

2. it's like raising a child on a diet of stale bread and water ...

... and then ditching it at an orphanage, because it is "being a bother" due to malnutrition-induced chronic illnesses.

This seems to be what the "Bushies" and their ilk want to do to public services ... withdraw support, then complain that they are underperforming and a burden, in order to abandon them to the privatization vultures at the earliest opportunity.