Montana VA to Temporarily Suspend Care at Miles City Community Living Center
PRESS RELEASE
April 21, 2022
Miles City , MT — Montana VA will temporarily suspend care at its Miles City Community Living Center (CLC). The timeline for the suspension of care will be determined based on the needs of the current residents.
Montana VA will temporarily suspend care at its Miles City Community Living Center (CLC). The timeline for the suspension of care will be determined based on the needs of the current residents.
In Dec. 2021, Montana VA identified concerns with patient safety. VA pursued multiple processes to include inspections, investigations, and inquiries to fully evaluate the CLC.
The upcoming temporary pause of care will allow Montana VA to ensure the full spectrum of staffing requirements are met, which includes the time to hire, train and certify a full CLC team. Currently, immediate mitigation strategies have been put in place to ensure Veteran care continues uninterrupted at the CLC. This includes temporarily relocating VA staff to the Miles City CLC.
“The safety and wellbeing of our Veterans is our highest priority. Due to staffing challenges, we are unable to ensure that a critical level of high-quality care can be provided to residents,” said Executive Director Dr. Judy Hayman. “We are proactively transitioning Veterans to other locations based on their and their families' preference.”
Current vacancies include: physical therapy, social work, nursing leadership, nurse educator, and recreation therapy. These vacancies substantially impact the restorative care and delivery of appropriate nursing care in a safe and effective manner. The VA is moving forward with multiple actions to ensure the required number of staff and specialties are on site as quickly as possible to transition Veterans back with minimal disruption.
The Miles City Community Living Center provides complex care to 14 residents with approximately 40 VA staff. The goal is to reopen the CLC to full operations as soon as possible.
Montana VA Health Care System Montana VA serves over 47,000 enrolled Veterans across Montana—an area roughly 147,000 square miles in size. Veterans are cared for by a staff of 1,400 at 18 sites of care across the state. One third of Montana VA employees are Veterans.
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Matthew Rosine, Public Affairs Specialist
Phone:
Katie (Catherine) Beall, VISN-19 Newsroom Chief
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