WASHINGTON D.C., DC — After months of scandal and upheaval and reports of substandard care at the Hampton Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, lawmakers on Tuesday worked to get some answers.
The center's top three officials were reassigned in July after the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) found "widespread failures related to facility leaders' responses to clinical care concerns."
RELATED: Hampton VA Medical Center leadership under fire after investigation reveals 'widespread failures'
Tuesday, lawmakers heard testimony from the Deputy Assistant Inspector General.
"Over the past three and half years, the OIG has published several reports highlighting serious deficiencies at the Hampton VA that substantiated a range of allegations related to inadequate clinical care and revealed that leaders lacked a basic understanding of the quality assurances processes that support the delivery of safe health care," said Dr. Jennifer Baptiste.
The House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing entitled: "What has Happened to Hampton?"
The panel's chair — Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia 2nd District) — said she and her staff spoke to 25 VA whistleblowers.
"Through this work I repeatedly heard reports of patient safety concerns, ineffective facility leadership, internal employee disputes, and dirty surgical operating rooms," she said.
For the first time, the public heard from Hampton's new Acting Executive Director Walt Dannenberg.
He said, "culture change does take time," but, he said he has implemented weekly staff town halls to hear directly from employees.
"My priority focus is creating an organization of high reliability. What that means is for an employee to share not only what is going well, but what is not going well," he said.
Last week, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough came to Hampton.
He said the Hampton VA Medical Center is now on "a good track," telling reporters, "we're making concrete improvements."