Dayton, Ohio, VA to Get Senate Hearing

The Dayton VA Medical Center -- where hundreds of veterans were recently screened for infections following the disclosure of infection-control problems in the dental clinic -- will be the focus of a US Senate hearing on April 26. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called for the hearing on Feb. 11, three days after the VA offered free screenings to 535 vets who may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C there between 1992 and July 2010. All the patients had undergone invasive dental procedures performed by a dentist who failed to change latex gloves between appointments and did not properly sterilize equipment. Two former patients have tested positive for hepatitis B; testing is underway to see if the clinic was the source of these infections. The hearing is "not intended to be a fact-finding, retrospective kind of hearing," said a member of Brown's staff; rather, it will focus on moving the facility forward and restoring confidence in the system.

Back to other news for April 2011