CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito says the sexual abuse of
veterans by a former doctor at the Beckley VA Medical Center deserves a federal
investigation similar to one that shed light on the failures allowing the deaths
of multiple veterans at a Clarksburg VA hospital.
Capito has been
critical of the lapses that got by leadership at the Clarksburg VA, allowing an
overnight nursing aide to kill at least eight veterans with unauthorized insulin
injections in 2017 and 2018. A scathing 100-page report by the Office of
Inspector General for Veterans Affairs laid most blame on nursing aide Reta Mays
but said the hospital failed its oversight duties.
More than 50 veterans
at the Beckley VA Medical Center have filed suit over sexual abuse by a doctor
in 2018 and 2019, saying that hospital should have heeded warning signs about
the doctor. The doctor, Jonathan Yates, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25
years in prison.
“I think it would be a good idea to find out how he was
hired. Was a background check done on him? Did we know about this? How many
whistleblower complaints were lodged before somebody actually did anything?”
Capito saidlast week on “Radio Roundtable” on WJLS-AM Radio in
Beckley.
“I think those are very logical questions. And if we don’t know
the answers to those, and I don’t think we do quite yet, I would say an OIG
report would be warranted in Beckley as well. These could be systemic problems,
and I think they are.”
Yates started work at the hospital in April 2018.
In September 2019, a criminal investigation opened into the sexual abuse of
multiple veterans who had sought medical treatment there. In April 2020, Yates
was charged and arrested for his actions taking advantage of seven of those
veterans.
Civil suit filings on behalf of veterans describe fondling
disguised as routine medical treatment. The attorney now representing the
veterans has told WVVA-TV that similar behavior was reported at a hospital in
Mercer County shortly before Yates was hired at the Beckley VA Medical
Center.