The head of the prosthetics department at Aurora’s Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center improperly canceled 1,000 orders without contacting veterans who sought artificial limbs, hearing aids and other devices to help them live more functional lives, a regional Veterans Affairs leader acknowledged.
Sunaina Kumar-Giebel, director of the VA Rocky Mountain network, which includes the Aurora hospital, confirmed The Denver Post’s reporting from November that first uncovered the prosthetics order-deletion scheme that left vets without necessary equipment.
“The consults were closed outside of guidelines,” she said Friday in the VA’s first interview on the topic.
Leadership, after being made aware of the deleted orders, instructed outside VA staff to call every patient on the list to ensure they received what they needed, Kumar-Giebel said.
Multiple whistleblowers told The Post in November that the prosthetics chief, Norma Mestas, instructed lower-level staff to delete these orders as if they had never come in to help alleviate a substantial backlog. She also deleted orders personally, employees said.
Kumar-Giebel said the VA brought in outside staff to ease the logjam. There are now zero delayed prosthetics orders, she said, and none have been in the system for more than three days.
Mestas is now working at the Grand Junction VA in an administrative role, pending the conclusion of a federal investigation, the regional director said. She did not respond to calls from The Post seeking comment.
The revelations come as the Aurora VA has been mired in turmoil for the past six months.
In October, leadership removed the Eastern Colorado system’s director, Michael Kilmer, and his chief of staff, Shilpa Rungta, while citing vague operational oversight and culture concerns. The following month, The Post revealed the prosthetics scandal as well as numerous reports from staff spelling out an environment of fear and retaliation that spanned multiple departments.
The removals, and subsequent reporting by The Post, prompted congressional oversight from U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, an Aurora Democrat and former Army ranger, who demanded a thorough accounting of the prosthetic deletions.
Leadership in December also reassigned the nationally renowned director of the Aurora VA’s suicide prevention center after union officials detailed to The Post “emotional, mental and psychological abuse” toward its staff. The director, Lisa Brenner, remains in a temporary position outside the center as the VA’s internal investigation wraps up, leadership said.
VA brass, in Friday’s interview, also offered additional details concerning the October removal of the Aurora hospital’s leadership.
Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the VA’s under secretary for health, said repeated reports concluded staff at the Aurora VA “did not feel comfortable raising concerns” about patient care and other work-related issues. Staff also outlined retaliation concerns that dissuaded them from giving feedback.
“It was made clear that the sentiment around the employees at the Denver VA was overwhelmingly one where psychological safety and comfort in raising concerns to leadership was compromised,” Elnahal said.
Additional red flags came when a number of people in executive leadership departed in rapid succession.
“That’s a very big concern,” Elnahal said. “You need to have stable leadership.”
In the Aurora hospital’s intensive care unit, leadership initiated a fact-finding mission in the wake of The Post’s reporting last month that detailed allegations from staff of unsafe practices, including nurses taking on more patients than is generally deemed acceptable.
Whistleblowers also said leadership, in one case, instructed providers to give a patient an unknown tincture provided by a family member.
VA leaders on Friday did not acknowledge there were unsafe protocols in the Aurora ICU, but Kumar-Giebel said the unit strives to include more transparent communication of decision-making between leaders and staff.
Crisis-level staffing protocols are not being used anymore, she said, though additional support staff may be floated to the ICU to help in certain circumstances.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough told reporters in February that the federal agency must manage its workforce in a “tighter fiscal picture,” but that there is no nationwide hiring freeze.
Hiring in the Rocky Mountain VA region will continue, Kumar-Giebel said Friday. Staffing goals can be managed through attrition and voluntary separations, Elnahal added.
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