Lawmakers Call for Changes at Atlanta VA Medical Center

Lawmakers called for changes at the Atlanta VA Medical Center last week after learning about a fourth patient suicide that occurred last fall at the hospital on Clairmont Road.

U.S. Reps. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and David Scott, D-Atlanta, toured the facility last week and called for action to improve hospital service to ailing veterans, and Scott demanded leadership changes, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

From the story:

When Miller asked hospital officials whether there were any other patient deaths Congress should know about, he said he was told, “No.” But last November, hospital staff discovered Army veteran Joseph Petit, 42, locked in a hospital bathroom dead in his wheelchair, a plastic trash bag tied over his head with a blue cord around his neck, a medical examiner’s report shows.

Petit’s suicide was not included in two audits released last month by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Read the full AJC story for more information.

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• Federal Audit Blames Mismanagement for Three Atlanta VA Patient Deaths