WASHINGTON -- In an unusually strong letter sent to the White House on Monday, the office that handles complaints from federal whistle-blowers says it has found a pattern of problems at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Jackson, Miss., that raises serious questions about the hospital's management practices. The problems over the last six years include poor sterilization procedures, chronic understaffing of the primary care unit and missed diagnoses by the radiology department. Though some of the problems seem to have been addressed, the large number of whistle-blower complaints from one hospital -- five in this case, from separate people in different departments -- raise a "troubling pattern of disclosure," the letter from the Office of Special Counsel said.
