Durbin Legislation to Address Quality of Care for Nation's Veterans Discussed Today in Senate Hearing
Press Release
Durbin Legislation to Address Quality of Care for Nation's Veterans Discussed Today in Senate Hearing
At a hearing of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today discussed his pending legislation to strengthen hiring practices and improve quality control measures at VA Medical facilities. Durbin joined with Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to write the bill in response to the troubling circumstances at the Marion Veterans Medical Center (VAMC) in southern Illinois which suspended all inpatient surgeries at the hospital on August 31 due to an unusual increase in deaths over a six-month period.
"The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a series of new and difficult challenges for the VA," said Durbin. "Qualified doctors and abundant resources are essential as the VA takes on the challenge of providing long-term health-care for the tens of thousands of physically injured veterans and hundreds of thousands returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Our veterans must have access to the best medical care and I believe this legislation will help that effort."
The Veterans Health Care Quality Improvement Act is designed to tighten the process for hiring doctors, introduce a new quality assurance mechanism, and attract more quality medical professionals to the VA. The bill will improve the process of vetting doctors who apply to or work for the VA by requiring doctors applying to VA to disclose all past malpractice payments and disciplinary actions against them and any ongoing investigations or outstanding allegations, as well as to send a written request to any state board where they have ever held a license asking that board to disclose this same information to the VA.
The legislation will expand the quality control programs in the VA health care system by calling for a designated doctor, with the appropriate seniority and qualifications, to monitor the quality of the surgeons on staff. This doctor will report directly to the leadership of the hospital but will also report to a similar quality assurance doctor at the regional level. This will ensure that if there is a lapse in leadership at the facility, which appears to have been the case at Marion, a separate avenue is there for employees to express concerns.
Finally, the bill will create incentives to encourage high-quality doctors to practice at veteran's hospitals, where salaries are often not competitive with private hospitals or private practice. It calls on VA facilities to establish close affiliations with nearby medical schools, proposes to help relieve crushing medical school debt for young doctors willing to practice in a VA hospital and offers incentives to bring more senior doctors into a veterans' hospital setting, even if on a flexible or part-time basis.
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