VA Secretary Calls for IG Inspection of Bay Pines


WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2004 /PRNewswire/ -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi has directed the department's Inspector General to investigate the reasons for temporarily stopping non-emergency surgery at the Bay Pines medical center.

"Ensuring high-quality medical care and the highest standards for patient safety are top priorities for the Department of Veterans Affairs," Principi said.

Officials at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center recently decided to temporarily suspend non-emergency surgery.

The Bay Pines facility is operating VA's pilot program for new computer software called CoreFLS that ties together purchasing and inventory operations.  CoreFLS began in 1998, when the previous administration directed VA to upgrade and integrate its financial management and logistics systems and to use off-the-shelf software like CoreFLS when upgrading their computer systems.

"Because VA is the largest integrated health care system in the country, we have decided to first test CoreFLS in a pilot program at Bay Pines," Principi said.  "We expect the pilot to highlight issues that need to be addressed before we can move forward.  But we also need to make sure that nothing else is contributing to this unacceptable situation."

The VA secretary pledged that the CoreFLS pilot will not be expanded to other VA facilities until issues raised at the Bay Pines pilot program have been resolved.

SOURCE  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 

CO:  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Bay Pines VA Medical Center

ST:  District of Columbia

SU:  EXE

Web site:  http://www.va.gov

http://www.prnewswire.com

02/19/2004 19:28 EST