VA Patients at Risk of Deadly Overdoses, Government Study Finds

Soldiers treated at Veterans Affairs medical facilities are at increased risk of medication overdoses due to a lack of proper screening procedures and other glitches, a new government study says.

An inspector general’s report released today finds that less than half of VA sites visited had suitable policies in place to screen patients for histories of drug addiction and other factors before doses of drugs are administered.

Also, more than one in ten patients who were allowed to administer their own narcotics at home were given more than a one-week supply, which can increase the odds of potentially deadly overdoses, insufficient doses, and other abuse, the report found.

The problems with potential medication overdoses at VA facilities come two years after an Iraq war veteran died after taking an overdose of mediation. Justin Bailey, 27, died at a VA facility in Los Angeles after undergoing surgeries for a groin injury he sustained in battle. He also had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The day before Bailey died, he was given five different prescriptions in doses for 14, 15, and 30 days, his father later testified to Congress, which was investigating the death. Bailey was known to abuse prescription medications and had used illegal drugs in the past, but he was still given long-term prescriptions to administer himself, officials said.

Bailey had been in the VA treatment facility for six weeks, but had not been seen by a psychiatrist at the time he was given the prescriptions, his father said. Officials said the same problems that led to Bailey’s death could still happen at the VA.

VA officials have vowed to implement changes in how they handle medication prescriptions in the future to avoid situations like Bailey’s and agreed to changes recommended in the inspector general’s report, officials said.

Earlier Problems Reported at VA Facilities

News that the VA does not have adequate measures in place to reduce deadly drug overdoses comes on the heels of recent scandals involving botched cancer treatments and improper handling of medical equipment, which exposed thousands of patients to Hepatitis C, HIV, AIDS, and other infectious diseases.

In March, it was revealed that as many as 3,200 veterans who received colonoscopies at a Miami-area VA facility may have contracted hepatitis or HIV from contaminated medical equipment used during the procedures. Similar problems also were discovered at VA facilities in Tennessee and Georgia.

An investigation determined that VA staffers rinsed then reused tubing and other equipment used in the examinations on multiple patients instead of sterilizing the parts or throwing them away, as is supposed to be done. At least 10 VA patients tested positive for hepatitis as a result of the improper handling of colonoscopy equipment, while another four or more have tested positive for HIV, although VA officials say it may never be known whether the patients were infected at the hospitals or by some other source.

Then, last month, the VA said it had mishandled prostate cancer treatments given to at least 92 veterans who were treated over a six-year period at a medical center in Philadelphia. Cancer patients may have received inadequately low doses of radiation during the treatments, officials said.

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