All Reports

The Under Secretary for Health considers specific VHA guidance related to the recognition of personally owned insulin pumps as a lethal means for patients with suicidal ideation and at risk for suicide in emergency departments and inpatient units to mitigate risk and improve patient safety.

The Associate Director ensures staff make feminine hygiene products available in public women’s and unisex restrooms.

The Medical Center Director ensures staff implement processes to secure medications from unauthorized access.

Biomedical staff indicate inspection dates on all equipment.

The Executive Director ensures staff address environment of care deficiencies within 14 days or have an action plan, as required.

The Executive Director ensures staff perform preventive maintenance on medical equipment in accordance with manufacturers’ recommendations.

The Executive Director ensures staff evaluate the best place to store cleaning supplies, staff store them there, and leaders monitor compliance.

The Executive Director ensures staff remove expired medical supplies and patient food items from patient care areas.

The Executive Director ensures doors in patient care areas have signs to indicate what is stored inside.

Facility leaders ensure staff perform preventive maintenance in accordance with manufacturers’ guidelines and clearly define staff responsibilities.

Executive leaders continue to recruit a permanent chief of biomedical engineering and implement processes to prevent repeat environment of care findings.

The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director considers conducting peer reviews for the clinical staff involved in the patient’s care from day 30 through day 32, to identify opportunities to strengthen clinical practices and improve the quality of patient care.

The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director ensures that inpatient nurses receive training on the National Early Warning Signs assessment related to the assessment’s administration, intervention, escalation, and documentation; establishes a process to monitor inpatient nurses’ adherence; and conducts audits to ensure improved and sustained compliance.

The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director ensures nursing staff have knowledge of and timely access to the accurate names and contact numbers for patients’ on-call provider teams and the medical officer of the day, and addresses and closely monitors discrepancies as warranted.

The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director reviews [Standard Operating Procedure] SOP-00-QM-100, Clinical and Administrative Escalation Process, May 28, 2025; ensures the procedure meets facility and service-line needs; and confirms information is disseminated to relevant leaders, providers, and nursing staff.

The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director ensures nursing shift assessments electronic health record documentation is completed, timely, and at frequencies required by Veterans Health Administration’s nursing policies and procedures; takes corrective action as indicated; and establishes a process to monitor for improved and sustained compliance.

The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director evaluates the circumstances surrounding the death of the patient to ensure completion of comprehensive quality review process(es) in alignment with Veterans Health Administration standards on patient safety and high reliability that identify root causes and provide actions that enhance patient safety and mitigate similar events.

The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Director confirms that facility staff made reasonable efforts to conduct an institutional disclosure with the patient’s family.

Executive leaders ensure staff fix or replace damaged furnishings to allow effective cleaning and disinfection.

Executive leaders ensure staff place paper maps at information desks to assist veterans in navigating the facility.

Executive leaders ensure staff store clean equipment in a sanitary environment.

Executive leaders ensure hallways and exits are free from obstruction.

Executive leaders ensure staff remove defective equipment from clinical areas to prevent use.

Executive leaders ensure staff have computer screen privacy filters to protect patients’ personally identifiable information.

Facility leaders ensure staff follow facility policies and maintain a cleanenvironment.

Facility leaders ensure staff develop service-level workflows for the communication of urgent, noncritical test results.

Executive leaders monitor the effectiveness of the patient notification process.

Require the chief operating officer to direct the Veterans Integrated Service Network directors to fully integrate the core services in accordance with policy to improve operational efficiencies and access for veterans.

Establish a process requiring medical facility directors to coordinate with the Office of Integrated Veteran Care and the clinical contact centers before setting up or maintaining a local phone queue for services the clinical contact center provides.

Require the Office of Integrated Veteran Care to direct the clinical contact center leaders to determine if schedulers are arbitrarily ending calls in the telephone system to remain in after-call work status longer than needed to reduce the number of calls routed to them.

Require the Office of Integrated Veteran Care to review and address inconsistencies in guidance on schedulers’ availability.

Direct clinical contact center leaders to routinely evaluate and, if needed, address schedulers’ handle time and availability time to improve performance and reduce inefficiencies.

Direct the Office of Integrated Veteran Care to include schedulers’ handle time and availability time as part of VA Health Connect’s annual performance plans to make sure clinical contact centers monitor and address these areas.

Make sure the Office of Integrated Veteran Care and chief operating officer evaluate VA Health Connect staffing for scheduling and, if necessary, reallocate staff so all clinical contact centers provide core services and meet required performance standards for scheduling.

Direct the Office of Integrated Veteran Care to formalize and clarify internal waiver guidance and include examples of the specific evidence that would be required for a clinical contact center not to provide 24-hour services—such as exploring the use of other strategies like routing calls to another service or partnering with other centers to provide coverage.

Ensure the assistant under secretary for health for the Office of Integrated Veteran Care and chief operating officer periodically review the clinical contact center waiver submissions and the planned actions to comply with VA Health Connect requirements.