The Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday announced a leadership shake-up at its Augusta Health Care System, citing “potential issues and questions regarding organizational health and workplace culture.”
Augusta VA director Robin Jackson and a fellow top official, Kimberly Booker, were reassigned elsewhere amid an investigation of those issues, according to two VA employees who attended an online meeting about the changes Thursday.
Oscar Rodriguez, who recently served as the VA’s acting director in Columbia, South Carolina, became Augusta’s acting director. And Lovetta Ford, previously the Atlanta VA’s deputy director, is now Augusta’s acting deputy director.
David Walker, who directs the VA’s southeast network, including Georgia, outlined the changes in an email to employees that was viewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Without providing details about what prompted the investigation, Walker wrote that “these matters have been referred to appropriate oversight bodies.”
“Concurrently,” Walker added, “VA is making temporary leadership adjustments to facilitate this review and expedite the necessary changes to meet our obligations to the veterans we serve.”
The VA’s press office in Washington, D.C., did not respond immediately Thursday to a request for comment. Initial attempts to speak with Jackson and Booker were unsuccessful.
The Augusta Health Care System consists of two hospital sites in Augusta and outpatient clinics in Athens and Statesboro, and also in Aiken, South Carolina, according to the VA’s website. It employs more than 2,700 workers who serve about 50,000 veterans each year across 36 counties in eastern Georgia and western South Carolina.
The VA Medical Center in Augusta is among the lowest-performing VA hospitals in the nation, according to ratings published by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As of Feb. 19, it had an overall rating of two out of five stars, which are based in part on patient care, safety and mortality. Most of the more than 100 other VA hospitals that received ratings during the same time frame got higher scores.
In April of 2022, nurses at the Augusta center demonstrated, alleging “disrespect and bullying that is creating a hostile work environment and staffing crisis,” National Nurses United, a union representing VA workers, stated in a news release at the time.
Irma Westmoreland, the Augusta area director for National Nurses United, said fellow VA employees are “cautiously optimistic” about the leadership changes that were announced Thursday.
“The nurses and the physicians and all the employees here are really just focused on our veteran care and trying to improve that,” said Westmoreland, a registered nurse herself.
Like Westmoreland, Becky Halioua, a recreation therapist for the VA in Augusta, attended Walker’s online meeting Thursday.
“Maybe this is a good thing. We will see,” said Halioua, president of the American Federation of Government Employees 217, a union that represents VA employees in Augusta.
Walker told VA employees during their online meeting that the leadership changes in Augusta are not related to the planned 15% workforce reduction that VA Secretary Doug Collins announced this month. Union leaders who represent VA employees have said they already are stretched, while advocates for veterans argue that a major overhaul is needed.
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