Apparently unable to find a permanent director for the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System after it fired the former director a year ago in the wake of the Legionnaires’ outbreak, the VA on Thursday named its third interim director in a row at the Pittsburgh VA.
Though the inability to find a permanent director has the union representing Pittsburgh VA employees concerned, the VA refused to answer any questions about the appointment Thursday.
The announcement that Timothy Burke, currently interim director at the Butler VA, would become interim director at the Pittsburgh VA, came in an emailed statement Thursday from the Pittsburgh VA press office.
Other than the announcement, and a paragraph about Dr. Burke’s background — which includes a stint as a primary care doctor at the Pittsburgh VA — the statement’s only other remarks were: “Throughout these staffing changes, VA Pittsburgh leadership will continue championing transparent, proactive communications with veterans, staff, stakeholders and members of the media.”
Dr. Burke, the permanent chief of staff at the Butler VA, replaces Barbara Forsha, interim director in Pittsburgh since June. Ms. Forsha, who will return to her post as Pittsburgh deputy director, had replaced David Macpherson as interim director. Dr. Macpherson assumed that job in October 2014, after the VA formally fired former director Terry Wolf.
Ms. Wolf was fired for not taking effective action during a Legionnaires’ outbreak in 2011 and 2012 that sickened 22 veterans and led to the deaths of six of them.
Marilyn Park, a lobbyist for the American Federal of Government Employees, said the union is troubled by the rotating leadership of the Pittsburgh VA — as well as the regional VA, which also has an interim director — “especially in a facility with so much turmoil like Pittsburgh, it’s a problem that they continue to leave it with unstable leadership.”
“It’s extremely paralyzing at the regional and local level” to not have permanent leadership, she said.
A VA report released last month that looked into how management was doing at the VA found that there was an unusually high number of vacant regional and local director positions as of March. The report found that 23 VA medical centers — or 16 percent of them — did not have permanent directors. Nine regional VA offices — or 43 percent of them — did not have permanent directors.
“Leadership positions are increasingly unattractive to the next generation of VHA leaders, which contributes to the difficulty in filling leadership openings,” the report said. “VHA is currently experiencing a large and widespread number of current vacancies and upcoming retirements in key leadership roles, and open positions remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates.”
First Published: October 22, 2015, 4:07 p.m.
Updated: October 23, 2015, 2:54 a.m.