US Veterans Affairs investigating Beckley facility

This follows the hospital’s own internal investigation where several employees have been cited and ordered to respond to allegations of abuse and harassment.

Those accused include a department manager, called a Service Chief, an assistant Service Chief, and several nurses.

Beckley VA Public Affairs officer Debra Voloski confirmed the investigation into alleged employee misconduct. But she would not confirm Monday how many employees were cited, or if employees had been relocated, suspended or fired.

Voloski says hospital officials have been ordered not to speak to the media by their supervisors in Washington and to refer all questions to them.

National press secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs Katie Roberts replied to questions Monday with the same email statement she distributed late last week.

The email states: “All allegations of harassment or potential abuse are taken very seriously and appropriate actions are taken.”

No other details are offered in Roberts’ email.

According to an unnamed source at the hospital, the misconduct allegedly took place within the hospitals nursing home which has the capacity to house 50 veterans and often stays full.

For several years veterans and families have filed complaints about the VA’s Extended Care unit but little has changed according to the source. 

The employees were given 14 days to respond to the allegations, a period that ends Thursday. The hospital’s director will then have the ability to take action.

The Beckley VA Med Center employs more than 700 workers and has had a history of on-going problems.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller has been a critic of past leadership. In 2007 he accused the former administrator of the Beckley VAMC of knowingly giving false information about staff shortages, low morale and mistreatment of veterans to then VA Secretary Jim Nicholson.

That administrator was reassigned to Washington D.C. by the end of 2007.

Rockefeller's press secretary, Rebecca Gale, also declined an interview Monday but emailed this response:

“We have been assured at every level that a full investigation was conducted and that strong disciplinary action has - and is - being taken, up to and including termination of VA employees.”