VA Echoes Gentiva

StrangeTony,

How long can abusive leaders survive in a system?  Quite awhile, even with staff utilizing internal channels.  Here's testimony on the Veterans Administration in Phoenix, Arizona:

The Veterans Administration OIG Hotline received numerous allegations daily of mismanagement, inappropriate hiring decisions, sexual harassment, and bullying behavior by mid- and senior-level managers at this facility. We are assessing the validity of these complaints and if true, the impact to the facility senior leadership’s ability to make effective improvements to patients’ access to care.

This facility had staff employing unofficial systems to hide long wait times for appointments.  The OIG found inappropriate scheduling practices, i.e. widespread cheating, to be systemic throughout the VA.

I work at a Gentiva hospice site with similar management horrors.  Our branch director outright lies to corporate on at least two key measures.  Staff share concerns only to be told they are a problem and need to adjust their attitude.  The messenger is continually blamed as Gentiva managers, local and regional, share a tin ear.

It remains to be seen if the VA's OIG can find what distorts behavior so greatly.

We have and will continue to conduct comprehensive interviews of numerous individuals to evaluate the many allegations, determine their validity, and if appropriate, assign individual accountability.

The OIG found systemic unethical behavior and its assigning individual accountability?  They miss widespread damage caused by top down, authoritative management that manipulates staff with distorting reward systems.

Management's sole reliance on extrinsic motivation schemes discourages learning and improvement.  Such bribes encourage people to focus on beating others in the race.  Woe to those who come in last.  If one doesn't achieve the prize, they must be punished.  Gentiva announced it would pare its losers, ultimately closing or consolidating nearly 100 sites.

Top down decisions have their place, but over reliance turns makes every decision an autocratic dictate.   Such decisions at our site level have a whimsical quality.  There's little to no analysis, exploration of history or management memory.  The criteria seems to be whatever will make our site leader look the best in the present moment.

The pathology of our branch director and the greater Gentiva continually makes things lessor.  Neither Gentiva or the Veterans Adminstration have a clue as to the heavy losses they impose with bad management theory and suboptimizing practices.  They are wed to commands, bribes and manipulations and not capable of seeing.  It's a sad state, sure to be compounded by a looming hostile takeover and healthcare pay for deformance.

Anonymous (from Gentiva)