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DAYTON — Two dental lab technicians, caught up in warring factions within the Dayton VA Medical Center’s dental clinic, blew the whistle last summer on a dentist whose poor infection control practices put the health of hundreds of his patients at risk.
Wallace “Ray” and Sherry Perdue of Fairborn claimed the VA retaliated against them after they and a third whistle-blower told an outside team of VA inspectors visiting the Dayton hospital in July about Dr. Dwight M. Pemberton’s failure to follow proper infection control protocols.
VA documents claim Pemberton failed to change latex gloves between patients and failed to sterilize instruments.
The VA subsequently closed the clinic for three weeks and offered testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV to 535 patients who received invasive dental work from Pemberton, 81, of Centerville. So far, the VA has confirmed two patients have hepatitis B who hadn’t previously been diagnosed. Further testing is under way to determine the source of those infections, though that may never be known.
The Perdues had worked at the dental clinic since 2000. The couple claimed their work environment deteriorated after mid-2008, when they said they were told the VA might prohibit married couples from working together. The Perdues described a clinic where intimidation and aggression were commonplace. And they were not immune from such actions.
Not long after they reported Pemberton’s unsafe practices, the VA initiated an investigation of the Perdues’ workplace conduct.
On Oct. 28, three months after alerting VA officials outside the medical center to Pemberton, the Perdues both were reassigned outside the dental clinic — he to Richmond, Ind., and she elsewhere at the Dayton VA campus.
The VA cited allegations by dental clinic employees that the Perdues were creating a hostile work environment as the reason for their temporary reassignments. The Perdues claim the underlying reason for the reassignments was retaliation.
The Perdues resigned in mid-November, and have since taken jobs in Chillicothe. Their attorney, David Duwel, said they would like their old jobs back, plus back pay. The VA said the Perdues are welcome to consider applying for vacancies for which they’re qualified.
An investigation of the hostile work environment claims culminated in a Dec. 14 report, which the Dayton Daily News obtained Wednesday.
In the report, dental clinic employees claimed Ray Perdue had a heated discussion with dentists on Sept. 20, allegedly making insulting comments about them and invading their space. Ray Perdue denied he invaded their personal space, but acknowledged he may have made an insulting comment about the dentists’ work habits.
On Sept. 27, Sherry Perdue allegedly witnessed a dental clinic worker inappropriately touch a dentist and filed a written report about it.
After the infection control problems, Sherry Perdue said she was instructed by the acting dental chief to carefully document any issues she observed.
The VA said in its investigation report that the sexual harassment incident was unsubstantiated.
The report noted the Perdues did not testify, but “their testimony would not have changed the conclusion as to whether or not a hostile work environment existed. A hostile work environment did exist based on the perceptions of those that testified.”
But Duwel said his clients are solid workers.
“It’s clear that these people were retaliated against because they raised the issue up about Dr. Pemberton,” Duwel said. “When they’re protesting something that’s going on, that’s when they get in trouble.”
Whistle blown during short visit
In July, a team of VA officials arrived at the Dayton VA Medical Center to review hospital practices.
It was the opportunity the Perdues said they had hoped for.
Ray Perdue claimed the dental clinic chief at the time, Dr. Andrew Mesaros, suggested Perdue hold off from sharing his infection control concerns with the team, called a SOARS team.
Instead, Perdue said, Mesaros suggested bringing the problems to the attention of the Joint Commission, an independent nonprofit that accredits and certifies more than 18,000 U.S. health care organizations and programs.
Mesaros of Beavercreek, faces an administrative action for not doing enough to address Pemberton’s poor infection control practices. He declined comment.
But the Perdues, who learned from another clinic employee about Pemberton’s alleged inadequate infection control practices in early 2009, told the SOARS team about Pemberton during the team’s brief visit to the dental clinic.
The Perdues and the SOARS team entered Dr. Pemberton’s workspace, and Sherry Perdue recalled pointing the SOARS team to a drawer she said contained stacks of dirty burs — small tools used in various dental procedures.
“I explained to them about Dr. Pemberton coming back and forth and adjusting dentures with the same burs,” she said.
The Perdues’ action prompted the VA to launch an internal investigation into the infection control problems.
During that investigation, convened by an Administrative Investigation Board, workers testified under oath.
In an interview with the Dayton Daily News, however, the Perdues contradicted other workers’ sworn testimony that Pemberton did not work hard. They claimed Pemberton was productive, though they confirmed others’ claims that he used work computers to do genealogy research on patients.
When it came to productivity, “the man was awesome,” Ray Perdue said. “He’d do three times the work of the other people.”
Ray Perdue claimed he had brought up Pemberton’s poor infection control practices to VA officials outside the dental clinic in May 2009 and again in July 2009 — more than a year before the SOARS visit.
Perdue said he broached the subject during meetings at which he was contesting a letter of reprimand stemming from a staff meeting in March 2009, during which staff members alleged he was belligerent. During those meetings, Ray Perdue said he brought up Pemberton’s poor infection control practices.
“I was very upset, and I was telling them anything and everything I could come up with because it was so corrupt and it was so wrong,” he said. “All these people, they’re fine with it. You’re either on the team or you stay out of the way or anybody that goes against them, that’s it.”
Perdue said Mesaros and a human resources official were present during the May meeting, while the Dayton VA’s chief of staff and a human resources official were present at the July meeting.
The VA has said that the Administrative Investigation Board was unable to obtain any information or statements supporting Ray Perdue’s claim he brought up Pemberton’s unsanitary work habits at those meetings.
Sherry Perdue said she went public in part because she feels the VA should have contacted more than just the 535 patients who received invasive dental work from Pemberton between January 1992 and July 2010 and were offered free testing.
According to a December VA clinical review board document, “risk analysis indicat(ed) that exposures to bloodborne pathogens via blood or saliva would have been most likely to affect those patients who received invasive dental care.”
Ray Perdue said he and his wife also were emboldened by media coverage of the incident.
“I hope it changes how people act over there,” Ray Perdue said. “How they get on teams. It all needs to change.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or bsutherly@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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