HEALTH : Death Rate High in 44 VA Hospitals
Forty-four veterans hospitals had “significantly elevated” rates of death among patients, and more than 5% of those who died were found to have received inappropriate care, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs report issued today.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward J. Derwinski, who ordered the report released today, cautioned in a letter to Congress that “no general statement about the quality of care” in veterans hospitals “can be drawn from these findings.”
Nonetheless, Derwinski said, “we must try to do better.”
The report is based on a review of 1,771 deaths in 1986 among patients at the 172 VA medical centers throughout the country. Medical records for the dead patients were reviewed by several levels of evaluators and judged against a scale of predicted death based on several factors, such as patient age, condition and type of illness.
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