Dr. Jose Veizaga-Mendez, a surgeon, had a troubling history even before he was hired at a Marion, Illinois Veterans Administration (VA) hospital. The doctor was hired by the Illinois VA hospital even though he was barred from practicing in Massachusetts the previous year after accusations of “grossly” substandard care.
And just what happened as soon as Dr. Mendez started practicing at his “new” hospital? Mendez resigned from the Marion, Illinois hospital in August, shortly before the hospital suspended inpatient surgeries because of a spike in surgical complications and post-surgical deaths. It has been reported by news sources that nine people died at the Marion hospital during an unspecified six-month period when the typical mortality rate would have been two.
Doesn’t sound like good medicine to me! Hospitals are required to check the backgrounds of all physicians who receive staff privileges. Was any body checking this doctor’s application? United States Senators Dick Durbin and Barack Obama say their own investigation raises serious questions about Veterans Affairs Department claims that officials couldn’t have known about a surgeon’s troubling history before he was hired at the Marion VA hospital.