A new report recently released by Veterans Administration Office of Inspector General, discovered the alleged wasting of funds at the VA Medical Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
The report showed that Madison’s VA Hospital wasted $410,000 buying or leasing equipment it couldn’t use, ultimately wasting resources that could have gone to other services to support veterans.
Madison.com reports:
“If facility leadership does not take action to strengthen its controls, the facility is at continued risk of expending funds on equipment that provides little or no benefit,” the VA Office of Inspector General said in a report released Friday.
John Rohrer, director of the Madison VA since January and associate director since 2012, said Monday he doesn’t think the robots were a waste of money because the hospital tried them out for 15 months before deciding the service didn’t work.
“That was an innovation that we were attempting to put in to be actually more cost effective,” Rohrer said.
The hospital bought the two robots in September 2012 for $313,000 to help distribute supplies, according to the federal investigation responding to a complaint filed in February 2015. The robots were taken out of service in July 2014 because they blocked staff and patients from passing in hallways, the report said.”
For more on this investigation, visit Madison.com.
