Political Quotes

“I wish to highlight an incident that occurred in my home State of Arkansas that has negatively impacted veterans and their families. A former pathologist at the Fayetteville VA Medical Center was found to be impaired, was immediately removed from clinical care, and has since been terminated. A thorough independent review of all cases read by this pathologist is currently underway. This review will be handled by entities outside of the Fayetteville VA Medical Center to include other VA facilities and academic affiliates. At this time, a small percentage of cases have been found to be misdiagnosed. In total, 33,000 samples will be reviewed using a tiered risk prioritization. In response, I have submitted an amendment cosponsored by the entire Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma delegation. This amendment would require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit to the congressional committees of jurisdiction a Departmental response plan that can be applied in Fayetteville and in all future incidents and for recommendations about changes necessary to prevent such incidents in the future. I am very concerned with the procedures and policies that allowed this situation to occur.…”