A Colorado lawmaker is demanding answers over staffing shortages, staff morale and canceled orders for prosthetics at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Aurora.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Aurora, sent a letter Thursday to the Under Secretary of Health within the VA over problems at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center uncovered by The Denver Post. 

“It is my understanding that there are a number of ongoing reviews/investigations as a result of the troubling information that has come to light regarding staffing shortages, staff morale and the RMVA prosthetics department,” he wrote. “… We expect a transparent account of the current state of RMVA and any remedial action taken in response. I appreciate the steps taken so far, and the changes made, to hold parties responsible.”

In November, The Denver Post published an investigation showing, among other things, the head of the prosthetics department was deleting orders as if they never came in. The department handles orders for items such as artificial limbs, wheelchairs and hearing aids. The goal was to reduce the backlog of orders to make it look as if the department was operating smoothly, the paper reported. 

VA nurses have also raised the alarm about problems at the hospital, holding a rally in July to draw attention to poor working conditions. 

“Nurses are being assaulted, kicked, spit at, hit, and threatened on a daily basis,” said Ricardo Ortega, a registered nurse and the NNOC/NNU associate director, in a news release. 

The nurses also complained of short staffing and retaliation from management. 

In late October, the director of VA Eastern Colorado Health Care, Michael Kilmer and and Shilpa A. Rungta, the chief of staff, were removed from the leadership, the The Denver Gazette reported. The leaders were removed pending “potential operational oversight issues and questions regarding organizational health and workplace culture.”

Crow posed specific questions to the VA in his letter asking for an outline of all reviews and investigations and an outline of remedial action. 

He keyed in on the problems around prosthetics, asking how many orders were deleted; how long staff engaged in deleting orders and what is being done to help veterans who had orders deleted. 

He also asked when the agency expects to make permanent leadership changes at the hospital and what resources the VA planned to send to the hospital.