Dayton, OH – The Dayton VA Medical Center director is returning to his post after temporarily taking over at both the Phoenix and Cincinnati Medical Centers, which have been under fire for rampant corruption and misconduct by employees who manipulated wait time data and endangered the safety of patients.
Glenn Costie first oversaw Dayton’s own scandal beginning in 2011 when it was discovered to have a patient appointment backlog. He was then temporarily assigned to assist in straightening up the Phoenix VA when the wider wait list scandal broke. Phoenix is the poster child for poor VA management, having seen seven directors in the last two years; four of those directors came and went during Costie’s time.
After that it was off to Cincinnati where quality of care issues were discovered and its chief of staff was supplying prescription medications to the Veterans Integrated Service Network director covering Ohio.
CVA Ohio State Director Jeremiah Martin issued the following statement:
“A constant game of ‘musical directors’ is not a long term leadership strategy. Leadership reshuffling is a lazy, haphazard approach that has produced scandals at VAs in Phoenix, Cincinnati, and across the country. VA’s top leadership would rather reuse and recycle its poorly performing employees than introduce reform and clean house.”
This “reshuffling” of VA staff members has become a strategy for the VA – a recent USA Today investigation uncovered that the department transfers problem directors to other facilities while telling the public that facilities are receiving new leadership.
The VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016 is a measure that would restore accountability at the VA by expediting the removal of problem employees, increasing the power of the VA Secretary to remove problem employees, and preventing bonuses for senior executives for the next five years. CVA supports this legislation, which would bring real accountability and reform to the VA and end the shifting of bad employees from facility to facility.