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VA official admits to ‘failure of leadership’ at Dayton clinic

Sen. Sherrod Brown questioned members of the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as well as local VA officials during a Tuesday, April 26, hearing into the practices at the Dayton VA Medical Center Dental Clinic.

Chris Stewart/Chris Stewart Sen. Sherrod Brown questioned members of the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as well as local VA officials during a Tuesday, April 26, hearing into the practices at the Dayton VA Medical Center Dental Clinic.

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By Jack Torry, Washington Bureau Updated 11:17 AM Wednesday, May 4, 2011

WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. Veterans Affairs official acknowledged that a “failure of leadership” in the Dayton VA Medical Center’s dental clinic after a dentist repeatedly did not switch latex gloves or sterilize instruments between patients.

Testifying before the House Veterans Affairs Committee Tuesday, Robert Petzel, under secretary for health at the VA in Washington, assailed leaders at the dental clinic, where 535 of its patients may have been exposed to blood-borne pathogens by an 81-year-old dentist who has since retired.

“I want to be perfectly clear: That was a failure of leadership within the dental clinic,” Petzel said. “The people that worked with this individual knew that this was not appropriate. The technicians knew that it was not appropriate. The chief of dentistry knew that was not appropriate. And for a long period of time, none of these people took the kind of action that they needed to take,” Petzel said.

“And unquestionably that is a failure of leadership.”

Petzel said not “everyone in’’ the medical center “knew this was going on. ... I think the primary failure there was the leadership in the dental clinic.’’

By holding the leaders of the clinic responsible, Petzel appeared to be endorsing the VA’s inspector general’s report released last week that concluded that the dentist “did not adhere to established infection control guidelines and policies, and multiple dental clinic staff had direct knowledge of these repeated infractions.”

Petzel, who was sharply questioned by committee members, apologized “to those veterans who have been affected by these lapses in safety practices at any of our facilities.”

He insisted that “our practice is to provide more information to our veterans in an abundance of caution, even if the risk to their health is low.”

Rep. Mike Turner, R- Centerville, who attended the hearing, complained that “although the administration said there was a failure of leadership, no one was ever held accountable.’’

In particular, Turner pointed out that the dentist has retired and the medical center’s former director — Guy Richardson — was assigned to a post in Cincinnati. Two dental clinic supervisors are facing potential disciplinary action.

After the hearing, Turner issued a statement saying that the “VA owes us a clear explanation of the events that have occurred and have yet to release to our community, documents which show that they taken every step necessary to notify veterans that may have been infected by the dentist in question.”

Two patients from the dental clinic have tested

positive in preliminary screenings for hepatitis B and one for hepatitis C.

The Dayton dental clinic was just one part of a broader hearing into medical sanitization at VA centers in Miami and St. Louis, where 1,800 veterans 1,800 veterans may have been put at risk because of improper cleaning of dental equipment.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the committee’s senior Democrat, castigated the VA officials who testified, saying that “we don’t know anything about accountability.”

“The most recent notification, the egregious incidents at Dayton, Ohio, affected over 500 veterans and involved a whole host of problems,’’ Filner said. “The findings beg the question of proper accountability, effective oversight and enforcement of clear policies and procedures.”

John Daigh, the assistant inspector general for the VA, testified that the inspector general’s reports show that the VA “provides veterans with high quality medical care.”

But he added that the agency “has had several high profile and highly publicized incidents that would naturally shake the faith of those who receive care from the VA.”

Staff writer Ben Sutherly contributed to this report.