Have you seen this headline The Washington Times posted on November 6, 2014? It read: “HOSPITAL HORROR: VA patients treated with bogus medical equipment, supplies“.
Yes, the VA is making news once again.
It appears bogus supplies and questionable surgical devices have followed a supply chain into VA operating rooms.
And the source of these potentially dangerous items stem from both the gray market and a stolen goods supply from other hospitals.
But what is really revealing is that…
Contacts to fulfill orders were satisfied by using…
reverse auctions!
Information from emails gathered via the Freedom of Information Act and a 2012 memo from Johnson & Johnson were instrumental in uncovering the practice. Reverse auctions afterall, is how sellers compete to offer goods at the lowest price.
But it wasn’t necessarily the low price that presented the problem, quality and sanitation came into question too.
Warnings and the resignation of a VA procurement official followed. Now, two years after an internal VA advisory group recommended the purchase of these products through reverse auctions be stopped, questions persist despite apparent compliance. So, there is more to the story…
NOTE: to get the complete story of where “Johnson & Johnson memo blames reverse auctions for influx of ‘gray market’ devices” check out Jim McElhatton’s full November 6, 2014 article at The Washington Times. Our News to Share Brief only scratched the surface.
News to Share Brief source: The Washington Times “HOSPITAL HORROR: VA patients treated with bogus medical equipment, supplies”
image license CC0 Public Domain at Pixabay
photo license CC0 Public Domain at Pixabay
