The filth, neglect and chaos that inspired Congress to investigate conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center might not have surprised anyone who was a patient at the Denver VA hospital in recent years.
But while the Denver hospital has had its share of problems, officials there say conditions have improved greatly since 2004, when federal inspectors described the hospital as a filthy, crumbling mess.
Then last year, a former nurse at the hospital was indicted on involuntary manslaughter charges after a World War II veteran died there under her care. That nurse, Carol Elkins, has pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced April 5.
According to court documents, Elkins admitted turning off a machine that would have alerted hospital staff that the level of oxygen in the man’s blood was dangerously low.
Those documents, along with accounts by other nurses, also revealed that her own colleagues complained about Elkins’ treatment of patients more than a dozen times before William T. Leslie’s death in 2003.
VA officials have declined to comment on the case, but several of Elkins’ colleagues told The Denver Post that no action was taken on the complaints.
Leslie’s death came a little over a year before The Denver Post reported on what federal inspectors’ found at the hospital: holes in walls; chipping paint and drywall in operating rooms; dirty linen lying on the floor in the surgical intensive care unit and an open vent between a dirty utility room and a room where biopsies were performed.
In some patient rooms, dirty strips of gauze with dried body fluids on them hung from light fixtures. The gauze was apparently being used as pull cords to turn the lights on and off.
In addition, infection was so rampant that the hospital decided it was too risky to admit immune-compromised patients, such as anyone who had undergone organ or bone-marrow transplants.
While the findings at the Denver VA hospital didn’t prompt congressional hearings, the report did trigger major changes.
The result can be read in the most recent federal inspection of the hospital, conducted in January, said Christina White, the VA’s public affairs officer.
A draft of the report, which is not yet available to the public, described the hospital’s current state as “clean, safe and well- maintained,” White said.
Inspectors found that “all previously identified environment- of-care issues have been resolved,” White said, reading from the draft report.
“We’re so proud of the work people here have done to achieve this,” she said.
“I have to say I’ve seen some improvement” recently, said Len Deemer, a retired Navy commander. Deemer, who navigated fighter jets in Vietnam, said he appreciates now being able to see the same assigned physician every time he visits.
The VA plans to move into a new hospital on the former Fitzsimons Army base in Aurora by 2012 or 2013.
Staff writer Karen Augé can be reached at 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
