Peter secured funding for a new outpatient clinic in Eugene in 2014. The clinic eliminated the bottleneck in medical care for Oregon veterans, allowing thousands of vets to get the treatment they need in a timely fashion. When bureaucrats then tried to cut care at the Roseburg VA hospital, Peter stopped them.
Not long after, dozens of employees of the VA Roseburg Heathcare System (VARHS) shared their concerns about the substandard care our veterans were receiving. Just as troubling, they described management’s regular silencing and retaliating against employees with the courage to say “this isn’t right.”
Peter got right to work, demanding an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Health Administration Office of the Medical Inspector and the VA Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection.
That investigation revealed that the facility’s management was, as Peter put it so “totally dysfunctional,” that it made hiring and retaining talented professionals nearly impossible.
With characteristic tenacity, Peter pushed for immediate, meaningful improvement at VARHS, including accountability for the leaders who consistently let down our veterans and those who care for them.
And because he made sure the VA Secretary understood that the issues weren’t unique to VARHS, the VA improved its oversight process for failing facilities nationwide, creating a better culture across the agency, and most importantly, creating facilities worthy of our veterans.
