TOMAH, Wis (WSAU) The Number-two official in the U-S Department of Veterans Affairs will tour the V-A Medical Center in Tomah today. Undersecretary Carolyn Clancy is the lead agency’s lead investigator into the reported over-prescription of opiates, and retaliation against whistle-blowing employees.
This week, U-S Senator Tammy Baldwin asked Clancy to take the whistle-blowers’ stories into account — consider a criminal probe into last summer’s drug-related death of Stevens Point patient Jason Simcakoski — and adopt a national policy on drug prescriptions at V-A hospitals throughout the country.
Clancy is scheduled to meet with reporters late this afternoon after a tour of the Tomah facility. Former Tomah employee Ryan Honl said some staffers stirred up fear-and-intimidation that discouraged workers from speaking out against the prescription abuse that was blamed for the death of a 35-year-old Marine last August.
Honl held a sit-in on Tuesday at the V-A center, in the hopes of speaking with investigators. He said he waited for ten hours and nobody got to him.
