VA Health Care Head set to leave Veterans Affairs

Dr. Robert Petzel

Dr. Robert Petzel is set to leave VA after the most scandal-ridden VA Administration in modern history. Not often has one man’s management been linked to more deaths.

Congratulations, Dr. Robert Petzel.

Amid one of the deepest crisis ever to beset the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Robert Petzel is set to depart the agency now that President Obama has selected a successor. Dr. Petzel is the current Under Secretary of Veterans Health Care. Aside Under Secretary Allison Hickey of VBA, Dr. Robert Petzel has overseen one of the greatest scandal ridden VA administrations in modern history. Hailing from Minneapolis, Petzel will leave the agency in disgrace, at least from the perspective of many veterans.

Upon reflection, Dr. Robert Petzel has overseen cover-up after cover-up ranging from cancer treatment failures to mere appointment scheduling problems. Last year, he announced his upcoming retirement pending a decision from President Obama about a replacement.

Dr. Petzel will be replaced by a very predictable Chicago groomed Dr. Jeffrey Murawsky.

According to the Fed, Dr. Murawsky’s background is as follows:

He served as the associate manager for Medicine and Neurology Services at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Illinois. Since 2009, he has been the network director of the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN 12), as well as an associate professor of medicine at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Read More: https://www.federalnewsradio.com/513/3614876/Obama-to-nominate-long-time-former-fed-to-be-OMB-controller

 

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11 Comments

  1. Dr. Robert Petzel , while he was at the VAMC in Mpls, Mn as the Chief of Staff. I was having some issues with my medical care and I asked for his help and he and the Patient Rep helped me in getting them resolved. He was a sincere and honest man that listened to me back then. I’m a 100% P & T Veteran. I feel like some of the current issues have made him the scape goat / fall guy. Just FYI.

  2. I think it’s really shameful when they stall on these claims. By allowing the VA to irrationally underrate claims with no accountability, they are basically sending a message to the VA that it’s all right to screw up and take all the sweet time in the world. It’s like asking a child with a pattern of misbehavior to “please do better” next time….it’s just empty words with no teeth.

    If they really wanted to start righting things for the veterans, they could start to implement consequences, such as paying interest (with the backpay) on a claim once it passes the 125 day mark. Also, if a veteran dies waiting for their damn claim to go through, it SHOULDN’T cancel the benefits. Those benefits/dollars should be available to their dependents and beneficiaries. Allowing their death to cancel the claim only lets the VA off the hook and provides and incentive for them to stall as long as possible.

  3. If you thought Petzel was bad, wait until Jeff Murawsky VISN 12 director . He will finish ruining the VA. They have been grooming him to take the position. He was the first physician to become VISN Director. He will not bring the new change that is needed but will continue with the same old same old policies and protect those that got him to this position. He is not a nice man nor does he care about the Veterans or the employees.

  4. In truth, I do not have the facts to actually blame Dr. Petzel. As far as I know, he might have tried to reform an institutionally corrupt system, trusted “directors” to be honest, and failed.

    I believe it is virtually impossible for any Veterans Affairs leader, especially undersecretaries and secretary, to micromanage the very large VA system. Rather, they must have directors and managers in place that they can trust. As we know, even the secretary has problems with firing VA bureaucrats at this time. I think the latter is the real problem.

  5. Do you really want to know what I think? Okay, I think this entire scandal was planned out for the purpose of dumping it on Petzel. It’s War Strategy, 101. Immediate, major corrections in how the VA operates on medical care and services, benefits, compensation awards, etc., will have to come now if VA top leadership expects to avoid prison. They have all conspired for many decades, with the old guard being replaced by the new guard who knows full well what is going on then they make it even worse. It is all about bonuses for stealing billions from veterans and the taxpayers, while killing them off by the thousands while they wait for their claim to go through or for urgently needed medical care.

    Benjamin Krause, if you are reading this, please, do your best to get it out that this is not just about 40 wrongful deaths. It is about thousands of additional deaths that no one has connected to the overall scandal, in the form of veterans claims that are deliberately stalled for many months and years because this is how the VA avoids paying a claim as result of the veteran dying while waiting for claim approval.

    And, Petzel and the rest get a bonus in the process! How many more vets die because they are actually service-connected but the rating was fraudulently denied? They can’t afford medicine and medical care that they should be getting from the VA as service-connected disabled, and they just die. The VA simultaneously has a racket of depriving veterans and their dependents of every sort of veteran benefit there is, from educational to anything you can think of. Read the following to get an idea of just part of Petzel’s illustrious past:

    The following was found in a 7 month old comment that appeared in the July 10, 2010 edition of a website called “allgov”, ‘everything the government does’:
    —————————————————————————————————————-
    “Robert Johnson 7 months ago”

    “The VA announced on Friday, 9/20/2013 that Dr. Robert Petzel, a VA undersecretary who oversees all veterans’ health care facilities under the Veterans Health Administration, will retire next year, saying the retirement had been planned. A national VA spokesman did not respond when asked whether congressional and public criticism factored in his departure. The announcement of Petzel’s retirement occurred just days after the Trib reported that Petzel had steered a VA consulting contract for training to a friend and former VA colleague. Read more: https://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4741748-74/outbreak-pittsburgh-disease#ixzz2fpDpppVt Follow us: @triblive on Twitter
    ———————————-

    1. +1^
      I totally agree! The very fact he was DUE TO RETIRE…smells like SCAPEGOAT and BS to me! The President retaining faith in SHITenski is certainly not “the change you can believe in” and this whole “audit crap” is nothing but blowing smoke up the proverbial arse of the MSM and American Public in order to **get it out of the news as fast as possible**

      1. When the VA runs it’s own audits and supposedly “polices itself” rather than Congress appointing independent auditors and launching a proper investigation–nothing will change, unfortunately.

      2. Obama’s Pick for VA Health Supervised Scandal-Tainted Hospital Jonathan Karl
        This doesn’t look good.The person nominated two weeks ago to replace the VA’s outgoing undersecretary for health was responsible for supervising one of the hospitals at the center of the current scandal.
        Dr. Jeffrey Murawsky was nominated on May 1 to replace Dr. Robert Petzel as undersecretary of health at the Department of Veterans of Affairs. Petzel’s “resignation” was officially announced today, although his impending retirement was first announced last September. Murawsky is currently the network director–effectively the CEO–of the VA region that includes the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital in Chicago. Before he moved up the VA hierarchy, he worked as a manager at the hospital

  6. This whole thing makes the Walter Reed scandal look like someone forgot to order band-aids in comparison.

  7. In response to MSgt Gouge: exactly! I wonder how long Petzel has been there. he is the of evil wizard version of “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”. his only contribution to anything is he is being used as a distraction, a scapegoat to hide the rest of the herd. the only way Shinseki (and others) will survive this is if they flat out admit they have failed, immediately introduce a new plan to deliver on the nation’s requirements to “care for those who have borne the battle”, starting now.

  8. I think it is much deeper than one man. It is Shinseki , Hickey , and about 6 deep at each VA. At a minimum.

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