Editorial: Heal thyself
Columbus Dispatch – Lapses in basic sanitation at the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center, newly revealed to have infected at least two patients with hepatitis, should prompt a thorough and speedy review of all Ohio VA facilities.
Three Ohio lawmakers wrote Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki last week to press for a regional task force to investigate all VA facilities in the state.
The letter came from Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville.
It is a bipartisan effort to reassure other veterans that the sloppy policies and procedures that afflict Dayton haven’t taken root at other clinics.
They write: “We must determine how, for more than 18 years, the VA allowed patient care to erode to the point where hundreds of patients at Dayton had to be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV because they were exposed to blood-borne pathogens as a result of their care.”
