KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar BluffIllinois legislators visit troubled Marion VA

Illinois legislators visit troubled Marion VA

By Carly O'Keefe - bio | email

MARION, IL (KFVS) - Illinois' congressional delegation met with Marion Veterans Administration employees, veterans organizations and newly appointed Marion VA leadership Thursday to discuss some lingering problems at the veterans’ hospital.

It's been more than two years since several botched surgeries lead to the deaths of nine veterans at the Marion VA, still a new report out this month by the VA Office of the Inspector General says while there are some improvements, there are also some of the same and even a few new problems with patient care and quality management that need to be dealt with.

Sen. Dick Durbin and others in Illinois' Capitol Hill delegation since then have met with the VA's secretary and its inspector general.

"We will not rest until the deficiencies that were pointed out by the inspector general's report are addressed," said Congressman Jerry Costello."And we want them addressed now. Not next year, not two years from now, now."

"There were dramatic changes that were made," said Sen. Durbin. "There were improvements clearly, there were improvements, but there were vacancies that remained.  That made it difficult to put together a team to address the overall issue.  It's also clear in the inspector general's report that there were deficiencies that went uncorrected.  So, I don't know.  I guess we can look back in hindsight and say the quality management team at a certain point in time might have made a difference.  I want to look at today and today we have a commitment from Gen. Shinseki  with the Veteran's Administration that this is his highest priority."

A quality management assessment team will evaluate the Marion VA from top to bottom over the next several weeks and offer lawmakers a "report card" of sorts on how the VA is serving veterans and where improvements can be made.

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