Deborah Amdur, the Department of Veterans Affairs senior executive brought in to bring stability to the scandal-ridden Phoenix VA hospital, is retiring after just eight months on the job.
Amdur was transferred there from Vermont, succeeding a series of short-term leaders and billed as the person who would end wait-time manipulation that left scores of patients dead, even as VA executives collected bonuses.
But a VA Inspector General report that officials saw that wait time metrics became implausibly positive the moment she arrived at the Vermont hospital, strongly suggesting she presided over a severe case of the same thing she was supposed to be stopping in Phoenix.
On Friday, the hospital sent a memo saying “Amdur notified Service Line Chiefs this morning that she will be retiring in the near future. This is unexpected and is related to medical issues she has had flare up recently. In the short term, Ms. Barbara Fallen (Director of the Loma Linda facility) will work with us as we transition to a new Director,” according to DisabledVeterans.org.
The resignation announcement comes a day after the local news reported that a cancer patient secretly recorded his nurse calling Phoenix’s scheduling system “a nightmare,” his doctor told him he’s “not a fan of the VA” and a doctor didn’t have a stethoscope.
Shortly after Amdur arrived at the Phoenix hospital, Sen. John McCain, Arizona’s senior senator and a veteran who was imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton, said she refused to meet with him.
Amdur’s departure continues the cycle of VA rotating managers with horrible track records out of one facility, giving frustrated veterans the illusion of progress there, only to install them in a different facility where they are pitched to veterans as cleanup artists who will turn the hospital around after bad prior management at those hospitals.
The directors, who complain that their $181,000 salaries are too low, get massive relocation packages, so moving every few years — or every few months — can significantly increase their earnings.
A Daily Caller News Foundation analysis found the VA shuffled nearly 100 hospital administrators to three or more states each in the last eight years, often to deal with underperforming directors whom they could not fire.
The list of VA employees with unusual workplace moving patterns includes infamous names like Diana Rubens, who was a D.C. based administrator until she created a job for herself with less work and the same $181,000 salary near her family in Philadelphia. Then she billed VA for nearly $300,000 in relocation costs. (INTERACTIVE: Take A Ride On VA’s Bad-Bosses Merry-Go-Round)
A veteran who asked to remain anonymous said he and other veterans don’t understand how the VA expects different results by rotating the same cast of characters instead of bringing in new blood. They don’t buy VA’s argument that only a handful of people in the country have the specialized qualifications necessary, noting, for example, that Amdur is merely a social worker by training.
In Vermont, Amdur’s hospital gave a recalled drug to a veteran, then hid the records on it for five years, and lied about the issue to a senator. Soon after, the VA put her in charge of rooting out wrongdoing at the
Tomah, Wisc. hospital, regarded as the VA’s second-most corrupt facility behind Phoenix. Her findings missed the bulk of the misconduct, which was established by numerous media outlets and Congress.
Amdur served as director of the Vermont hospital beginning in January 2013. For years before she took over, the facility “was in the red” for the performance measure “Same Day Access With [Primary Care Provider].” When she took over, the facility’s rate was 49 percent.
Six months after Amdur took the reins, the reported rate rose rapidly until 96 percent of patients were recorded as not having to wait a single day for treatment. Anyone who saw those figures would have known it was not credible that any hospital system would see every patient the exact day the patient preferred.
In Phoenix, Amdur took the job of Sharon Helman, who is now seeking reinstatement despite being a convicted felon.
Explore the VA’s “march of the lemons” below:
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