House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Jeff Miller (R-FL) grilled Veterans Administration officials on why a physician who copied and pasted pulmonologist notes that included “vital signs” and “treatment plans” to over 1,200 different records is still employed at the VA.
Dr. James Tuchschmidt, the Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health at the VA responded that he didn’t “feel like” he could “really go into the details,” but maintained that “we very much are interested in the quality of care within the VA, that documentation is an important part of that…we don’t copy and paste material from old records into new records as evidence of the current encounter with a patient.”
Carolyn Lerner of the Office of Special Counsel testified that even while the physician was under review “he was still cutting and pasting,” and that “as far as we know no serious disciplinary action was taken.” She added that such conduct “fits the pattern that we are concerned about where allegations are confirmed, no harm is found to patient health, and no corrective action is taken against wrongdoers.”
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