Healthcare Inspection – Follow-Up Evaluation of Quality of Care, Management Controls, and Administrative Operations, William Jennings Bryan Dorn, VA Medical Center, Columbia, SC

At the request of Members of the House and Senate Committees on Veterans’ Affairs, the OIG conducted an evaluation of conditions identified in the OIG report Quality of Care, Management Controls, and Administrative Operations, OIG Report No. 13-00872-71, issued February 6, 2014 (the initial report), at the William Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center (facility), Columbia, SC. The purpose of this follow-up review was to determine whether identified conditions have abated, continued unchanged, or worsened and whether OIG’s recommendations were implemented. In the initial report, we noted that critical leadership positions were filled by a series of “acting” and temporary managers over a period of several years which contributed to past delays in correcting identified deficiencies. A permanent Chief of Staff and Medical Center Director were installed in January and April 2014 respectively, which has accelerated the facility’s progress in addressing deficient conditions. However, many of the problems outlined in our initial hotline report still existed, in whole or in part, at the time of our follow-up visit (July 2014). We found that the facility had implemented corrective actions in response to the 12 recommendations in our initial report, yet improvements were still needed. We agree with closure of 2 recommendations and will continue to follow up on the remaining 10 recommendations from the initial report. In addition, during the July 2014 visit, we found improper storage of patient information, medical and surgical supplies, medications, grafts, and patches. We made one additional recommendation related to proper storage.