VA orders review of 1,400 hospitals and clinics

WASHINGTON — The VA is ordering its 1,400 hospitals and clinics to report on the quality of their facilities to determine if squalid conditions found at Walter Reed exist elsewhere.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson issued the directive in an internal memorandum sent last week to the VA's medical center directors. He said "recent events" compelled him to redouble efforts to improve the physical environment at outpatient center and medical facilities.

"I am directing you hereby to conduct and supervise a full and immediate review of your facility's environments of care," Nicholson wrote in the March 7 memorandum, which was obtained Monday. The memo asks for a full report by March 14.

"As medical center and network directors, you all are responsible," he said. "Negative responses are required."

Read the rest at USA Today

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