50 VA hospital workers claim retaliation for blowing whistle on the horrors they saw

The Washington Times ^ | 6/29/2014 | Jacqueline Klimas

[markomalley]

When Valerie Riviello, a nurse at a Veterans Affairs facility in New York, saw the clinic restrain a sexual assault survivor to a bed for seven consecutive hours, she released the woman.

The next day, Ms. Riviello said, she was removed from her post as senior nurse manager and given a full-time desk job that prohibited her from contact with patients. She eventually was reprimanded and is facing a 30-day unpaid suspension for releasing the woman.

Now, Ms. Riviello is one of more than 50 whistleblowers who say the Veterans Affairs Department retaliated against them for trying to do their jobs.

The complaints got backing last week from the Justice Department’s office of special counsel, which issued a stern warning for the VA to shape up.

Ms. Riviello said her reprimand for the November incident has cowed other nurses at the Albany Stratton VA Medical Center in New York.

When the facility put the same female patient under restraints for 49 continuous hours in February, as a convenience to doctors who wanted to enjoy their holiday weekend, none of the nurses wanted to speak up, Ms. Riviello said.

“The nurses are afraid to complain or report anything,” she said. “They have 100 things they’ve noticed, but they’ve seen what is happening to me so they’re afraid to report anything.”

[FlingWingFlyer]

One of the hazards of living in a fascist police state.

[R_Kangel]

"50 VA hospital workers claim retaliation for blowing whistle on the horrors they saw..."

..... Not important!!! ..... Child Refugees streaming accross the border ..... THAT is what we should be focused and worried about!!! This "VA" stuff is so two weeks ago ... focus on the poor little children for Peets sake.

[Citizen Zed]

Is it all over? What country do we live in?

[ducttape45]

As a government employee, believe me, I could tell you some horror stories of my own, like letting two particular employees smoke for 4-6 hours a day and not do any work just because they were within 3 years of retirement. They were nasty, crude, belligerent and would never interact with the people they were supposed to interact with, and I had to share an office with them. It was hell.

What happened when I exposed this charade to higher management? Nothing happened to them. I on the other hand have been blackballed from gaining higher employment on the base and I received a very poor performance appraisal. This was directed, I found out, from the group commander, possibly even the wing commander as well.

I pointed out their lack of managerial skills and have been suffering ever since. That's ok though, one of these days it'll come back on them and when it does, all I'll say is I told you so.

[MtnClimber]

Families of veterans that have gotten substandard care should be able to get the names to sue them or take out some personal discussion.

[BilLies]

The local Obama outlet, the Albany Times Union has yet to mention Valerie Riviello even on it electronic news.
In fact, it has yet to mention anything about the local Veterans Administration hospital since the VA scandal erupted.
Not surprising, their reporting on all the federal scandals is reflective of the Obama White House take....WHAT SCANDALS? ME? PERISH THE THOUGHT.