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The director of the Veterans Affairs hospital in Denver said Tuesday she will retire at the end of the month, ending a tenure marked in recent years by cost overruns at a replacement facility in Aurora and complaints from veterans about delays in receiving care.
Lynette Roff’s announcement came just days after two Colorado congressmen demanded an investigation of the Denver office by the VA’s Office of Inspector General.
Those calls were in response to a 9News report that found that the VA’s Denver office had maintained a secret list of veterans awaiting appointments at its sleep clinic in 2012.
In a statement issued before that story, the VA had denied keeping any secret or unauthorized waiting lists. VA bonuses are based partly on minimizing wait times for medical appointments.
Elaine Buehler, a spokeswoman for the regional office, said that, to her knowledge, Roff’s retirement decision was unrelated to recent news reports.
Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, and Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, called for a probe. Both welcomed Roff’s departure.
“The men and women who have served our nation in uniform and sacrificed so much for our freedom deserve better than director Roff’s leadership,” said Coffman, who heads the subcommittee overseeing the VA in the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. “She did the right thing by leaving. The veterans of this nation are desperate for leadership in the VA that will challenge its culture of bureaucratic corruption. The VA needs new leadership at every level.”
In a statement released through the VA’s regional office, Roff announced that her retirement is effective March 1.
“I have elected to retire after almost 42 years of government service,” she said. “It’s been my honor to work with so many in the Denver community, and my thanks goes to all that have surrounded and supported me.”
The VA noted that during Roff’s 10 years as director, she opened six new community clinics across Colorado and expanded VA collaboration with other Department of Defense medical facilities.
The VA plans to appoint an interim director during the search for Roff’s successor.
The VA’s aging Denver hospital is due to be replaced by a state-of-the-art medical center in Aurora. That project has been plagued, however, by delays and cost overruns, climaxed by a U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals decision in December that the VA had budgeted $604 million for a project that could cost more than $1 billion.
That decision allowed the general contractor to walk away from the job, but construction resumed after an interim agreement was signed and the VA paid Kiewit-Turner $157 million.
The manual waiting list kept for the sleep clinic at the Denver medical center might be “just the tip of the iceberg,” Coffman told The Denver Post on Monday.
He questioned how an audit of the hospital — done after secret waiting lists were found at other VA facilities — could have given Denver a clean bill of health.
“I think if this occurred in one department, it could be happening throughout the hospital,” he said. “I just don’t have confidence that they did the audit the way they said they did.”
Coffman voiced frustration that “nothing ever comes to my attention from the VA leadership” when problems arise. “As a combat veteran myself, I couldn’t be more embarrassed by what’s occurred here at the VA hospital in Denver.”
Bennet’s letter to the inspector general expressed similar concerns.
“I am troubled, not only (by) the very existence of this type of wait list at the Denver VA Medical Center, but also by the failure of the VA in Denver and Washington, D.C., to come forward and proactively share the potential existence of the list,” he wrote. “The lack of transparency is deeply concerning.”
Bennet on Tuesday said he hopes the VA will “conduct an extensive search to find an executive and leader that will open the doors of the new hospital and continually push to find innovative ways to deliver more effective and efficient care to our veterans.”
David Olinger: 303-954-1498, dolinger@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dolingerdp
