The Minnesota Veterans Home in Hastings on Marxh 3, 2023. (John Autey, Pioneer Press/TNS)
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(Tribune News Service) — Caregivers at the Minnesota Veterans Home in Hastings say a long-standing culture of workplace harassment, retaliation and bullying has led to an exodus of workers and hazards for both residents and staff.
Current and former workers say unsafe conditions are ignored, medical decisions are made by unqualified people and staffing levels are dangerously low, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Pioneer Press.
These conditions threaten some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable veterans who turn to these state-run homes, called domiciliaries, as a last hope. Staffers at the homes say that’s often because they have nowhere else to go and suffer from chronic diseases, mental health problems and substance abuse.
The Pioneer Press reviewed allegations from more than a dozen caregivers at the Hastings veterans home that described an ongoing pattern of ignoring safety concerns and consequences for those who spoke up.
“This is a deeply entrenched culture,” said Lynn Wachtler, a certified nurse practitioner and former primary care provider at the Hastings veterans home, who says she raised repeated concerns about staffing and safety. Wachtler said the stress of her job contributed to her collapsing in an exam room from a cardiac emergency and she eventually left.
Caregivers’ concerns
Caregivers have brought their concerns to supervisors, regional leaders, the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs and the governor, but they say little has been done to address what they claim is a toxic workplace. As a result, many of the home’s workers have retired, quit or been put on leave for what they describe as unfounded investigations.
“The veterans are being left behind,” said Wachtler, who is leading a group of whistleblowers trying to draw attention to problems at the facility. “The veterans don’t have a voice, that’s why we are doing this.”
The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs declined a request to interview Mike Anderson, administrator of the Hastings veterans home, citing an “ongoing investigation.” In a statement, the agency provided no details of the investigation, but said: “we deeply value our employees and the invaluable services they provide to veterans across the state.”
Members of the Minnesota Senate veterans committee heard similar concerns about short staffing, safety and workplace problems when they visited the Minneapolis Veterans Home on Jan. 19 for a field hearing. The Minneapolis facility houses up to 50 veterans while the Hastings home has room for 145.
Jim Meyer, a nurse at the Minneapolis facility for 14 years, told the Senate committee that when he raised concerns he was told: “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
Caregivers say workplace problems have been growing for years and come as three more veterans homes are being built throughout the state. There also are plans to update the Hastings campus with a total cost of $170 million, two-thirds of which will come from the federal government.
Current and former workers worry there’s not enough state funding to cover all of the veterans’ needs and not enough staff for all the facilities.
“That is a disaster waiting to happen,” Meyer told senators.
Ongoing problems
The COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed many medical systems, and veterans care was no different. But caregivers in Hastings say there have been problems at the facility that predate the outbreak.
A group of caregivers sent a packet of information — detailed narratives, incident reports and other documents — to Larry Herke, the state veterans administration commissioner, and Gov. Tim Walz. The group alleges years of targeting and maltreatment of workers if they were seen as questioning “decisions that could negatively impact veteran safety and employee well-being.”
A dozen of those workers described their experiences to the Pioneer Press and some asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. Wachtler says there are as many as 50 current and former Hastings workers who’ve experienced mistreatment at the home.
Wachtler and others initially sent their complaints and concerns to Simone Hogan, the state’s senior director of veterans health care, but they say the problems were not addressed.
By May 2022, they elevated their concerns to Commissioner Herke and later to Gov. Walz. In a letter to Herke provided to the Pioneer Press, Wachtler wrote the “workplace has become a hostile, understaffed and unsafe workplace where workers fear speaking up due to harassment, retaliation and bullying.”
She detailed how medical staff positions were eliminated and staff without medical training inserted themselves into decisions about veterans’ care. Other safety concerns were also ignored, Wachtler contends, and staffing became so thin the remaining workers struggled to keep up.
Specific allegations
In the spring of 2021, Wachtler says the stress of being overworked while also helping with her son’s cancer treatment led to a cardiac incident at work that caused her to collapse in an exam room. She was hospitalized and says she couldn’t return to work for medical reasons.
“We implore you to make necessary changes to foster a culture of safety, support and healing versus a culture of fear, retaliation, cover up and blame,” Wachtler wrote to Commissioner Herke.
Tori Pearce, a nurse and veteran, joined the Hastings home as the director of nursing months before the coronavirus pandemic hit. She and other staff scrambled to put a COVID-19 plan in place and were largely able to keep the coronavirus at bay throughout the worst of the outbreak.
As the pandemic began to wane, Pearce says she tried to transition into the job she was hired to do, but was “micromanaged and undermined.”
Pearce says she was ordered to change performance evaluations of caregivers, she had to force senior staffers to work nights and weekends leading to their departures and had medical decisions overruled by people without medical training.
“It became clear to me that I had no say,” Pearce said in an interview. “The workplace is hostile. There’s a whole culture of treating these veterans like they are less than human beings.”
Sue Register, the Hastings home’s volunteer coordinator until recently, said she “resigned under duress” after “enduring multiple unfounded investigations.” Register says the inquiries came after she raised concerns about safety and other workplace problems.
“Bad policies made it impossible to do our jobs,” Register, who now lives in the Philippines, wrote to the Pioneer Press.
Karissa Humphrey, a nurse and former Air Force flight medic, was excited to work with other veterans when she joined the staff in 2020. She says she was sexually harassed repeatedly and physically abused by a resident.
Humphrey informed her superiors and filed a report, but says not enough was done to make her feel safe at work.
“The silence and inaction were deafening,” Humphrey wrote in a letter to Commissioner Herke. “I learned that it did not matter … what happened to me.”
State leaders react
After repeated attempts to have their concerns addressed through channels at the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, the group of Hastings caregivers decided in August 2022 to write to Gov. Walz, who served 24 years in the Army National Guard.
Their August letter to the Democratic governor outlined the toxic work environment they say they experienced and included an unequivocal conclusion: “lives are at stake.”
A Walz spokeswoman said the group’s complaints were forwarded to Minnesota Management and Budget, or MMB, which handles human resources issues for the state.
Wachtler and other former workers say no one from the state ever interviewed any of them. In September 2022, Wachtler received a letter from MMB that said the state Department of Veterans Affairs “has identified improvement areas and will be implementing continuous education and process improvements over the next year.”
The complaint was considered closed, the letter said.
Mike Anderson, administrator of the Hastings domiciliary, forwarded an interview request from the Pioneer Press to colleagues at the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs. A department spokeswoman declined requests to interview Anderson, Deputy Commissioner Doug Hughes and Commissioner Herke.
They cited an ongoing investigation and instead sent a brief statement:
“The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs has and will continue to actively address any concerns from current or former employees in a comprehensive way, including but not limited to, reviewing and improving processes, conducting audits, implementing leadership development, training on multiple topics, and partnering with our Employee Assistance Program. Our goal is to continue to partner with our team members to resolve their concerns at the local level whenever possible.”
Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, who chairs the Senate veterans committee, has a long history of working to address challenges facing Minnesota veterans.
Twenty years ago, as a leader of the Minnesota Nurses Association, she pushed for better staffing levels and an end to mandatory overtime for veterans home nurses. In 2007, as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Murphy was on a committee that also probed staffing issues.
Murphy says the testimony at the January field hearing was the first she learned of the current allegations at the domiciliaries. She has started to investigate, has interviewed several workers and has promised to ensure veterans received the care they needed. “I can’t speak to the culture,” Murphy said of the environment at the domiciliaries. “I want to know more about what is happening.”
She noted that hospitals and care facilities nationwide are struggling with staffing shortages and those who remain often face difficult working conditions.
“We need to make sure veterans, who are treasured, are getting the care they need,” Murphy said. “Obviously, we have critical work to do in Minnesota, including for veterans. It is a priority to me.”
Sen. Andrew Lang, R- Olivia, a member of the Senate veterans committee, said the allegations were concerning and he urged committee chair Murphy to investigate and call Commissioner Herke to testify.
Staffing issues
Workers and residents say staffing levels at both the Hastings and Minneapolis domiciliaries have fallen so low it is impacting veterans’ care.
Harvey Lee, a veteran who has lived at the Hastings home for 15 years, says staffing levels have declined dramatically in the last five years. The facility once had a doctor on staff as well as several nurse practitioners, Lee says.
Now, top medical staff often have to cover both the Hastings and Minneapolis domiciliaries. If a resident needs a doctor, they might have to wait days unless it is a serious emergency, Lee said.
“They’ve cut the staff down to nothing. They’ve got people going from one building to another,” said Lee. “The health care has gotten bad.”
Michael Kavanaugh, who lives at the Minneapolis facility, told senators that staffing is so inconsistent he had between eight and 10 different caregivers a week. These “floaters” were often uninformed about the specific requirements of his care to a point he said that he deserved a “training fee.”
Legal cases
Other caregivers who’ve raised concerns to leadership at the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs did not want to be identified for fear of retribution or because they have legal claims pending.
Four workers have filed workers compensation claims related to their work in Hastings and the toxic conditions they say they experienced. Four others have filed charges with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Attorney Chris Wachtler, who has worked on other whistleblower cases and happens to be a distant relative of Lynn Wachtler, said he couldn’t discuss active cases, but says he has talked to 10 Hastings workers who say they experienced harassment and bullying.
“The level of attrition there is alarming to me,” he said. “They know how to skate as close to the edge as they can.”
Twin Cities attorney Marshall Tanick says he’s reviewed complaints from about a half-dozen different workers at the Hastings home over the past few years. Tanick wouldn’t discuss any cases he was currently involved with, but he said it was clear to him that there were ongoing problems with “excessive discipline” of workers.
“These problems have been around for a while, but to an extent it has been allowed to fester, it has gotten worse rather than better,” Tanick said.
Tanick added that hopefully increased “visibility” on the issues would lead to change. “It will have to come from the administration, or elected officials,” he said.
COVID outbreak and a death
Caregivers say they worked tirelessly during the pandemic to control exposures and limit coronavirus infections to avoid a widespread outbreak. They say they did so without much in the way of new resources, constructing a COVID ward mostly out of supplies they already had on hand.
By October 2022, caregivers say staffing shortages and operational decisions led to relaxed virus protocols that limited testing, administration of bivalent boosters and other precautions.
More than 80 residents and staff were infected with COVID-19 and one resident died. The Minnesota Department of Health investigated and found four residents of the veterans home, including the one who died, received inadequate care.
In its report, the Office of Health Facility Complaints concluded:
“The licensee failed to ensure each resident received nursing care, custodial care, and supervision based on individual needs, when the facility failed to have an infection control program that complied with current guidelines for COVID-19 safety.”
What is a domiciliary?
The Minnesota Veterans Homes in Hastings and Minneapolis both have domiciliary programs. The Hastings facility has 145 beds and there are 50 in Minneapolis.
The program is open to any eligible veterans and their spouses who need help with their physical and mental health or who have financial or social challenges. Workers at the facilities say that for most of the residents, it is a last resort.
Many who live in the domiciliaries struggle from addiction and severe mental and physical health ailments. They typically lack family and friends who will advocate to help them get the care they need.
The Hastings and Minneapolis facilities are both licensed boarding care facilities, but they are not nursing homes. Residents are expected to be independently mobile and able to manage their daily lives.
The domiciliaries are an important tool in the governor’s and other officials’ efforts to end veteran homelessness. They offer a stable place to live, a sober environment and around-the-clock access to nursing, mental health, social work and senior care.
Future plans
Minnesota is building three new veterans homes — in Bemidji, Montevideo and Preston — that are expected to open later this year. The state Legislature approved $32 million for the facilities in 2018.
Resident applications started being accepted in September. The Bemidji and Montevideo facilities will each have 72 beds and the Preston home 54 beds.
Minnesota’s general fund budget allocated about $70 million for veterans health care for the current fiscal year, the vast majority of the agency’s budget.
Gov. Walz has proposed a $25 million a year increase in the agency budget for veterans care. The governor also has proposed $78 million in new infrastructure spending to update the Hastings home.
Workers there say the work would address significant issues, including leaking roofs and collapsing ceilings. But they also worry opening new facilities under already tight budgets could not only distract from veterans care, but do them harm.
“I feel at the heart of this is money and politics,” Lynn Wachtler said.
If it is, veterans home workers say the Legislature needs to step up and use some of the state’s $17.5 billion budget surplus to improve care and oversight.
“We need the Legislature to honor its commitment and not just take the glory of this mission without the support we need,” Meyer told the state Senate committee.
“If the funding status quo and our hostile site culture prevails, I really see trouble ahead for Minnesota’s existing operations at the veterans homes,” Meyer concluded.
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