JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi congressman said Tuesday he’s asking federal authorities to investigate the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Jackson because he believes the hospital is understaffed and patient care is suffering.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said he has sent a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
He said in a news release that he’s asking them to investigate reports of patient deaths, improper access to records and staffing shortages at the hospital.
James Theres, the hospital’s spokesman, said he had just received Thompson’s news release Tuesday and wanted to read it. He said he didn’t know if the VA would respond.
“The management of G.V. Sonny Montgomery is in such disarray that essential care stations are being left understaffed, veterans are experiencing serious quality problems in patient care, and medical mistakes are becoming more prevalent leading to serious harm to our veterans and even death,” Thompson wrote in the letter seeking the investigation.
“The fact that veterans can survive some of the most dangerous battlefields around the world only to die prematurely due to inferior medical care back at home is simply unacceptable,” Thompson wrote. “These instances speak to systematic and widespread problems which lend to the subpar care of our veteran patients.”
On May 24, the hospital’s associate director of patient care services, Dorothy White-Taylor, was arrested and charged with prescription fraud as part of a continuing investigation by VA’s Office of Inspector General, authorities said. She was released on a $10,000 bond, said Michael Guest, district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties. Theres has declined to discuss details of the case.
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