A recently released report investigating the quality of care a veteran received at a Goshen clinic showed Michiana is not exempt from the deplorable state of veteran services that’s been receiving national attention in recent years.
At the request of U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski, the Office of Healthcare Inspections within the Veteran's Affairs Office of Inspector General launched an assessment of care provided to a male patient in his 70s at the Goshen Community Based Outpatient Clinic. The investigation found there was a delay in care given to the man, lowering his quality of life, and a lack of awareness of a patient advocacy program, which could have been prevented by the clinic and greatly benefited the patient.
The Office of Inspector General is an independent organization with the goal of minimizing fraud, waste and abuse in the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Office of Healthcare Inspections was created to monitor health care provided to veterans. OHI is legally authorized to gain access to all records, reports or other pertinent materials in the course of an investigation
The male patient, who died in spring 2014, had a medical history of chronic lymphocytic leukemia that was diagnosed more than eight years ago as well as coronary artery disease, according to the report. The investigation into delay of care, though, was the result of the time it took for the man to obtain an MRI, which eventually led to doctors diagnosing him with metastatic lung cancer.
The man’s cause of death was ruled to be from complications related to his lung cancer, but the report was clear that an earlier diagnosis may not have changed the outcome, but that the man’s quality of life could have been substantially better had the cancer been found sooner.
But the case is just one of many across the country of veterans not getting quality care in a timely manner. The local case comes after executive orders from President Barack Obama were issued last year to expand on a bill that allocated $16.3 billion to overhaul the VA. And one of the biggest cases came from an investigation last year into a Phoenix VA hospital that revealed waits so long it is believed dozens of veterans might have died awaiting treatment.