8 August 22-28, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | News | letters | coNteNts | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | A fter an air-conditioning failure at Miami’s veterans’ hospital left medical workers drenched in sweat and stewing in oppressive heat and humidity last August, hospital administrators convened a virtual staff meeting to assure the team that the breakdown hadn’t affected patient care. Several staff members who at- tended say the message contradicted what they’d seen on the front lines at the Bruce W. Carter Department of Veter- ans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. Medical workers tell New Times that floors were shut down and patients were shuttled between units before the VA rushed in industrial-size air chillers to cool the 56-year-old building. Amid the mayhem, the workers say, severely ill veterans were stranded in areas that lacked the proper medical equipment to monitor and treat them. The administration’s stance — that there were “no patient safety issues” during the breakdown — struck the local nurses’ union as emblematic of how management has downplayed infrastructure issues at the Miami VA for years. “It’s like they are just checking boxes sometimes — and going through this without really thinking and understanding that we’re in a very human business where lives are at stake,” says Bill Frogameni, a registered nurse and director of the Miami VA branch of National Nurses United. A year later, staff members say, the temporary chillers remain on site, a reminder of the disrepair into which the building fell. The workers say that while parts of the medical center appear in good shape for their age, if you turn the wrong corner or open the wrong door, the ve- neer disappears. Some bathroom facilities, for example, have been abandoned, leaving behind walls marred by gaping holes, stained fixtures, missing tiles, and nonfunc- tioning plumbing. The hospital has been siphoning water into trash cans and other receptacles to mitigate damage from persistent roof leaks for more than a year. The liquid is routed through a network of clear plastic tubes that snake down from the ceilings into the makeshift catch basins. The leaks led to a shutdown of a medical wing on the 12th floor in early 2024 and an urgent call to carry out roof repairs. According to the VA’s regional office, the leak-collection system was deployed pending permanent roof fixes, which have yet to be completed. Workers at the medical center have been in contact with New Times in recent months, providing photo- graphs and accounts of conditions inside the building, lo- cated on a 26-acre campus just west of Overtown. Several staffers say the AC failed repeatedly at the facility last summer and in years past, including an earlier break- down in June 2023 that left doctors’ offices in sweltering temperatures for weeks. One former Miami VA doctor who worked at the medical center during last year’s heat wave says the hospital administration suggested the staff was to blame for the soaring temperatures inside. “A manager tried to tell us that we weren’t setting the thermostat correctly,” he recalls. A nurse summed up the situation in one word: “disap- pointing.” “We are trying to show veterans that the VA is the bet- ter choice for them. But when you look at how much better equipped and maintained other hospitals are than the Mi- ami VA, you ask yourself why the private sector can do it but the VA can’t,” the nurse, who has been working at the VA for five years, tells New Times. (Both medical workers asked that their names not be published for fear of future employment repercussions.) New Times reviewed budget documents indicating that the VA’s Florida regional office, Veterans Integrated Ser- vices Network 8 (VISN 8), was aware of major infrastruc- ture deficiencies at the hospital for a decade before the AC breakdowns last year. In fact, upgrades to the system were planned as far back as 2013. The projects were subject to yearslong delays, leaving the hospital to contend with re- peated cooling failures in the summer months. In a statement responding to questions from New Times, VISN 8 says AC upgrades are “currently in design with an estimated design completion by December 2024.” “The Miami VA is fortunate to be supported appropri- ately, as needed, for any emergent needs and is proud of the teams that are working hard to manage this large, com- plex infrastructure to ensure our patients and staff have a safe and welcoming environment,” the statement adds. “Business as Usual” Built in 1968, the Bruce W. Carter VA Medical Center serves thousands of veterans in South Florida and maintains more than 360 patient beds spread >> p10 State of Decay At Miami’s VA Hospital, urgent repairs meet with interminable delays. BY IZZY KAPNICK
