VA Nurse Still at Work After Bungling Care

A nurse bungled the care of at least six patients--including two who died--but is still working at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix, according to a VA report sent to the White House and Congress this week.

VA investigators said nurse anesthetist David T. Polner removed breathing tubes too early and made other errors in the care of the six patients between 1993 and 1999. The VA concluded that Polner’s actions did not kill the two patients who died, although reviewers cited problems with incomplete records in both cases and said no other cause could be found for one man’s death.

Polner did not return phone messages seeking comment Friday. But John Fears, director of the Carl Hayden VA Medical Center, said Friday that Polner is not a threat to patients.

“David Polner is a good nurse anesthetist,” Fears said. “The things he was accused of are really normal complications that occur in anesthesiology. . . . He’s been very closely monitored, and they can’t find any problem at all with the way he practices anesthesiology.”

A federal watchdog agency criticized the VA for not having policies to discipline or fire workers who give poor care to sick veterans.

“It seems that it is a matter of common sense that the VA should consider removing the patient care responsibilities of a staff member whose actions have been found . . . to be associated with a high rate of patient mortality,” Elaine Kaplan of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel wrote to President Clinton and Congress on Thursday.

Rep. Bob Stump, an Arizona Republican who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he too was concerned about the lack of sanctions.

“I am very disturbed and concerned by these findings, and I am going to be monitoring the VA’s corrective actions closely,” Stump said in a statement. “Arizona’s veterans should be able to count on the best possible care at the VA.”

The VA report said hospital officials claimed that they were unaware of any problems in the anesthesiology unit until investigators showed up in March 1999, responding to a staff doctor’s complaint. On Friday, Fears said hospital officials first investigated Polner in 1997 because of an anonymous complaint.

“We went back and pulled every case in which he had been involved and found that his error rate was no different than anyone else’s,” Fears said. “We have been doing review after review for four years, and we’ve only been able to find these few cases in which there was a regrettable bad outcome.”

The VA probe looked at only 14 patients, nine of whom were anesthetized by Polner. Among the nine were the six whose care, the VA investigators said, was substandard. Other nurses told the investigators that Polner’s patients had “more breathing problems” than those of any of the other five nurse anesthetists working at the hospital, the report said.

Colleagues also described Polner as “brusque, intimidating, moody and volatile” and said he insulted veterans, the report said. Fears said Polner had gotten counseling and his behavior had improved.

“If someone does their job well, I can’t fire them if someone doesn’t like their personality,” Fears said.

Meanwhile, an anesthesiologist at the hospital says he was demoted, threatened with a suspension and falsely accused of wrongdoing after complaining about Polner to his supervisors and federal authorities.

“This is not only a huge injustice, but a public wrong that’s been committed here,” said Brian Christensen, a lawyer for the anesthesiologist, Dr. Winston Liao.