"Our numbers for second and third quarter were the same as last year and in order to show favorable results we [need] to delete as many orders as possible."
"We are still playing catch up on the backlog". . . suggestion, start booking newer patients first"it isn't good medical care; but it plays the system. "After 30 days they drop off of the radar, probably. [audio available]
March 2009: Mitchell filed an OIG complaint for fraud, waste and abuse. He reported that interim Service Chief, Dr. Suzie El-Saden, had instructed him to destroy medical requests for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and computed tomography (CT) scans in an effort to address VA's ten-year patient appointment backlog. Mitchell's OIG complaint also alleged that VA officials prevented patient access, falsified documents, and cancelled patient MRI appointments without notifying the patient of the cancellation.
April 2009: Mitchell filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint reporting that he was suffering reprisal since making his March 2009 OIG disclosure.
June 2009: Mitchell filed his FIRST complaint with the OSC. He
gave the OSC documents and AUDIO-taped evidence supporting his claims that VA officials had purged
records of an estimated 1,000 veterans and had engaged in scheduling tactics
resulting in denying veterans timely
access to care. An excerpt of Mitchell's
OSC complaint
reads:
"Dr. El-Saden said . . . that her job was on the line and this would be the death of her if we didn't delete and/or cancel any of the pending backlog."
*Despite the seriousness of Mitchell's claims, the OSC abandoned Mitchell's case. Shortly thereafter, Mitchell, who had previously achieved "Excellent" ratings, was detailed to a position with unclassified duties.
November 2009: The Director of the VA Greater Los Angeles (GLA) Healthcare System, Donna M. Beiter, replied to the OIG inquiry about fraud, waste and abuse issues that Mitchell raised in March 2009. In her reply to the OIG, Beiter denied that the hospital had engaged in any wrong-doing by purging patient records. She did admit that: "the backlog of outstanding requests for MRI imaging studies across the Veteran Health Administration dated back 10 years." She told VA's OIG: " Charles Anderson, National Radiology Director, instructed all Imaging Services across the country to mass purge all outstanding imaging orders for studies older than 6 months." *The OIG accepted Beiter's reply and closed out Mitchell's whistleblower complaint. A month later, VA placed Mitchell on another detail.
January 2011: Mitchell contacted members of Congress; however, he received no reply.
March 2011: Mitchell, now homeless, reports the VA constructively removed him from federal service in reprisal for his complaint activity.
October 2011: Senator Kevin McCarthy requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a study on the reasons for scheduling healthcare appointments difficulties within the Great Los Angeles Healthcare System.
December 2012: GAO published GAO 13-130:Reliability of Reported Outpatient Medical Appointment Wait Times and Scheduling Oversight Need Improvement
April 2013: Mitchell asked the OSC for a SECOND time to investigate his allegations of patient access abuses at GLA. The investigative agency declined to conduct an investigation on Mitchell's OSC Case No. DI-13-2270.
November 2013: Mitchell filed a lawsuit against the VA in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Case No. CV 13-6030-ODW).
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