Detroit Free Press: Dingell, Walberg want more surgery info on VA hospitals
May 27, 2016
Legislation proposed Thursday by two Michigan members of Congress would require the Veterans Affairs hospitals to report every three months on surgical infections and cancellations.
U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, and Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, introduced the bill, which comes as a reaction to concerns raised about particulate matter being found on surgical equipment trays at a VA center in Ann Arbor.
As the Free Press reported last week, some surgeries were still being delayed or moved to other facilities on an "intermittent" basis some six months after the particulate matter began appearing on trays.
VA officials said they have been working to correct the problem but that surgical cancellation rates were still "consistent" with national averages and that patient safety hasn't been compromised.
Dingell and Walberg, however, said it was unacceptable that the problem hadn't been corrected. Last weekend, they met with the center's acting director, Eric Young, and during that meeting, Dingell and Walberg said they learned that VA hospitals do not report on surgical infection and cancellation rates.
No specific issue involving infections has been reported but Dingell asked hospital officials about how that data is tracked and disseminated, so that if infections rise, the problem is addressed.
The legislators say the bill proposed Thursday would improve hospital transparency by requiring quarterly reports on that data along with the reporting that is already done by VA centers on waiting time for appointments.
"Should infection rates rise, Congress and the public need to know about it," said Dingell. "We also need to understand whether cancelled surgeries are affecting the health of a veteran."
"When barriers to timely, high-quality care arise, we must work together with urgency to get to the bottom of and solve them," added Walberg.
This article originally appeared in the May 26 edition of the Detroit Free Press.
U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, and Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, introduced the bill, which comes as a reaction to concerns raised about particulate matter being found on surgical equipment trays at a VA center in Ann Arbor.
As the Free Press reported last week, some surgeries were still being delayed or moved to other facilities on an "intermittent" basis some six months after the particulate matter began appearing on trays.
VA officials said they have been working to correct the problem but that surgical cancellation rates were still "consistent" with national averages and that patient safety hasn't been compromised.
Dingell and Walberg, however, said it was unacceptable that the problem hadn't been corrected. Last weekend, they met with the center's acting director, Eric Young, and during that meeting, Dingell and Walberg said they learned that VA hospitals do not report on surgical infection and cancellation rates.
No specific issue involving infections has been reported but Dingell asked hospital officials about how that data is tracked and disseminated, so that if infections rise, the problem is addressed.
The legislators say the bill proposed Thursday would improve hospital transparency by requiring quarterly reports on that data along with the reporting that is already done by VA centers on waiting time for appointments.
"Should infection rates rise, Congress and the public need to know about it," said Dingell. "We also need to understand whether cancelled surgeries are affecting the health of a veteran."
"When barriers to timely, high-quality care arise, we must work together with urgency to get to the bottom of and solve them," added Walberg.
This article originally appeared in the May 26 edition of the Detroit Free Press.
Issues:Veterans