IPFS News Link • Veterans and Veterans Affairs
VA Whistleblower Received Death Threats for Supporting Troop Who Died Awaiting Care
• http://thefreethoughtproject.comKuauhtemoc Rodriguez isn't just a whistleblower in the Veterans Affairs Administration. He happens to be the Chief of Specialty Care Clinics at the Phoenix VA Health Care System, the same system of VA hospitals which were at the center of the firestorm of the scandalous controversy of 2014. Freethinkers may recall the Phoenix VA hospital was ground zero for a scheduling scandal where some 40 veterans passed away while waiting to see a doctor at the VA.
The scandal led to the firing of several senior-level hospital administrators, criminal investigations by the FBI, several bills in Congress passed to protect veteran's healthcare needs, and eventually led to the replacement of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. President Obama replaced VA Sec. Eric Shinseki with former Proctor & Gamble CEO Robert A. McDonald. But Phoenix, AZ's Rodriguez says more work still needs to be done, and he blew the whistle again in March 2016, on the VA's handling of canceling appointments. Recall that the first scandal involved veterans not being able to get an appointment in time, leading to several deaths. Rodriguez noticed appointments made by veterans who had already passed away were being cancelled by those same dead veterans.
Rodriguez took his case to the court of public opinion and, according to AZ Family, the Chief of Specialty Care Clinics showed reporters several screenshots which indicated the deceased veterans had actually cancelled their own appointments. AZ Family reported in March, "hundreds of appointments that were more than 120 days past due to be scheduled were deleted from the system. That means many are still waiting to be seen and might not even realize they're no longer in the system. 'Obviously, if you're deceased you're not going to call the clinic and cancel your own appointment,' said Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez, Chief of Specialty Care Clinics at the Phoenix VA."
Months later, in May of 2016, Rodriguez, an Army veteran, felt the need to use the federal whistleblower system to report alleged retaliation against him, which he claimed also included death threats. According to the whistleblower form obtained by The Free Thought Project, Rodriguez alleged, "The Medical Center Deputy Director and the Medical Center Director have engaged in retaliation by notifying me that I was going to be removed from my position as Chief of Specialty Care Clinics at the Phoenix VA. The intent of these acts is merely to retaliate against me for exposing wrong doing, patient deaths due to delay of care, and mismanagement of Veterans programs by executive leadership and mid level managers. In addition I have exposed continued mismanagement at the Health System Specialist Level, Supervisory Level and Human Resources which has created a hostile working environment for me."
The VA executive, after making the case that the retaliation against him was because he blew the whistle, then detailed the type of harassment he's received since coming forward with such damning accusations. "I'm continually harassed by management at the highest levels, kept from meetings, have had my duties removed, and have been threatened with removal. In addition data shows that my leadership has enabled the facility to reduce patient backlog in consults, appointments for the last year and I have been still rated as fully successful in order to deny me advancement. In addition I have been denied advancement in positions I have applied for and have been recommended for hiring, again due to my whistleblower status."