Healthcare Inspection Quality of Care, Documentation, and Courtesy Issues Hampton VA Medical Center Hampton, Virginia

We conducted this evaluation in response to allegations of related to quality of care, documentation, and courtesy issues in the Emergency Department (ED) at the Hampton VA Medical Center in Hampton, VA. We substantiated the allegation that the treating physician did not conduct an adequate work-up of the patient’s stroke symptoms, and that the ED physician improperly copied and pasted another patient’s laboratory results into the medical record of the complainant. Despite VHA guidelines, the medical center did not monitor use of the copy and paste function. We determined that staff did not promptly respond to the patient’s concerns. We could not confirm that the patient’s blood pressure was inaccurately recorded or that the physician was discourteous. We made four recommendations to address the identified conditions.