Bredesen: “total confidence” in VA commissioner

By John Rodgers, NashvilleCityPaper.com
August 15, 2006

Gov. Phil Bredesen said Monday that he has complete confidence in his veteran’s affairs commissioner after a top veterans nursing home official resigned in response to continued troubles at the facilities.

That administrator, Rod Wolfe, was the executive director of the Tennessee State Veterans Homes Board in Murfreesboro and Humboldt before submitting his resignation Friday after pressure from the Bredesen administration.

Wolfe’s resignation came three days after the state Department of Health suspended new admissions on the Humboldt nursing home for a number of violations found. Murfreesboro had similar troubles this year.

John Keys, the commissioner of the Department of Veterans Affairs, is, as a nursing home board member, one of the officials who asked Wolfe to resign.

Bredesen said through a spokeswoman Monday that he has “total confidence in Commissioner Keys” to continue overseeing the department.

The nursing home board is not directly affiliated with the Veterans Affairs Department, but Keys, as a Bredesen-appointed commissioner, serves on the board. Every other member on the board is also a Bredesen appointee.

While Bredesen displays confidence in Keys, the governor did not do likewise with Wolfe. Earlier Monday, Bredesen told reporters that it was time for Wolfe to “move on” after violations were found at the Humboldt home.

Infractions were previously revealed at the nursing home in Murfreesboro.

“These are serious problems,” Bredesen said. “And I think it’s time to move on and get these problems solved. We just cannot have this kind of thing happening.”

Lola Potter, a spokeswoman for the Veterans Affairs Department, said the board has appointed Polly Darnell, a consultant to both homes, as acting executive director. A search for a replacement has begun.

The state imposed a $3,000 penalty on the Humboldt nursing home in addition to suspending new admissions after a Department of Health survey found the violations.

The infractions pertain to neglect of residents, failure to follow doctor’s orders, failure to notify a doctor of changes in a resident’s condition, and misappropriation of resident medications.

In June, the Murfreesboro home was suspended after the Health Department found 21 violations, including nine that were at the level of life threatening. One separate allegation, which Wolfe acknowledged as true, included maggots being found in a bed sore.

Rep. Butch Borchert (D-Camden), one of the leading veterans’ advocates in the Legislature, said what’s happening at veterans homes “is not right.”

“Those people have been through hell for us once,” Borchert said. “What we are doing is putting them and their families through it again.”

Wolfe’s resignation comes after he and the families of several veterans defended the Murfreesboro nursing home to a legislative oversight panel about two weeks ago.

That came in response to three families of veterans who had lobbed allegations of physical and verbal abuse at the Murfreesboro home. Those allegations included the verified bed sore complaint concerning the maggots.

Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville), another member of the veterans oversight committee, said the veterans nursing home situation needs to be cleaned up sooner rather than later.

“Whether Wolfe’s resignation is cosmetic or substantive, I don’t know,” Norris said.

Tennessee has more than 500,000 veterans.