Thousands of patient scans found locked in cabinet for months at Atlanta VA, investigation finds

ATLANTA — Thousands of patient medical records, scans like X-rays and MRI’s, were discovered locked in a cabinet his month at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, a Channel 2 Action News investigation has found.

We are talking about 1,200 CDs with as many 6,000 patient scans.

Many of those were never uploaded to patient files, a VA insider tells Channel 2 Investigative reporter Justin Gray.

Gray obtained a series of spreadsheets from a VA source that are from the Atlanta VA’s internal review of the CDs.

From the spreadsheets, we found that the CDs contain thousands of scans like MRIs CTs and X-rays sent by outside doctors and hospitals back to the VA.

Some of the scans are recent, others date back several years.

We first introduced you to Cherokee county veteran James Yarbrough in October, when he could not get the VA to pay his community care provider to refill the morphine pump that controls the pain in his back.

Gray showed him those spreadsheets.

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“I’m not surprised, I’m really not surprised. I’m worried about not just other veterans’ medical records, but my own,” Yarbrough said.

Word of these CD’s comes just two months after Channel 2 Action News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed you pictures of 10 pallets of unopened and unprocessed mail, some stacked 10 feet high, left in a VA basement for months.

Just last week, our exclusive Channel 2 Action News investigation revealed a veteran died from cancer Oct. 31, after falling through the cracks of VA’s community care. A colonoscopy was ordered after a positive cancer screen, but when the patient came to the ER in pain 6 months later the colonoscopy had never been done, and the cancer had spread.

Gray reached out to the VA to ask whether the CDs were lost and how this impacted patient care. The VA responded with a written statement:

“We are currently investigating the recovery of outside portable storage devices from a locked cabinet within the medical facility. A clinical review is being conducted to gain a complete interpretation of the data contained on these devices. the Atlanta VAHCS will take appropriate actions after completing the full analysis.”

RELATED NEWS:

Atlanta VA begins processing mail that sat for months following investigation The Atlanta VA confirms to us, it happened and says it has now moved six of the 10 pallets for processing.

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