Lt. Gov. Mike Parson wants the state Veterans Commission to remove the administrator and assistant administrator of the St. Louis Veterans Home.
"This is an unacceptable situation, and one that has been going on far too long," Parson told reporters Monday afternoon during a 22-minute news conference in his Capitol office. "It is evident that problems we have heard, from families of our state's veterans who reside at this facility - and from employees and professionals - are consistent with the problems we are learning about, involving the past history of the administrator and assistant administrator.
"The more I learn, the more frustrated I get."
Parson wondered how an administrator's business decisions can "be completely trusted when he has a proven, personal record of financial problems, himself."
Parson's office provided copies of court records showing the home's administrator, Rolando Carter, had filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and again this past September. The first case was marked "closed," while the most recent case has a hearing scheduled Wednesday.
The lieutenant governor also provided records - including a 42-page settlement agreement with the Missouri Nursing Home Administrators Board - showing Aneeqa Khan, the St. Louis home's assistant administrator, has a license "censured" by the state.
Parson described the censure as "based on having been the administrator of a skilled nursing facility that was closed due to repeated violations involving compliance - including failure to insure medication was administered in an appropriate manner," failure to follow physicians' orders and giving residents the right to make treatment and health care decisions.
He said similar complaints about the St. Louis home have been raised with his investigators since February, by residents, family members, home employees and medical professionals.
Carter nor his second-in-command responded immediately to the Associated Press requests for comment Monday.
The Veterans Commission didn't respond to the News Tribune's late-afternoon request for a comment for this story.
Carter previously has said complaints are minor, and changes have been made.
At its Oct. 30 meeting, the commission took no action to correct Carter's work or status - and commissioners were told an outside pharmacist reviewed the home's procedures for providing medications and found no problems.
Parson told reporters Monday: "I'm definitely hearing something different and, keep in mind, their whole statement all along has been, there's no problems.
"You've got the Veterans Commission giving those kinds of briefings, and you've got the personnel and the employees, the family members and the veterans giving just the opposite story."
Parson complained Carter issued a gag order telling St. Louis Veterans Home employees to refer any questions to Carter - and said the firm doing an independent investigation for the state Public Safety Department has "had minor problems that I know of now, with trying to get information from the employees and staff of this facility (and) had to move some of their interviews off-site, just to be able to talk to employees."
Parson reminded reporters the lieutenant governor is the "official advocate for over 480,000 veterans," and said his office intends to continue its investigation of the Veterans Commission's St. Louis Home, even as the state Public Safety Department is paying for a second, independent probe into the home's operations.
"There are problems at this home that need to be addressed," Parson said. "Of all the veterans homes we have in the state, this one seems to be the one that has the issues - and they keep re-occurring, with the same issues and the same problems."
An Oct. 19 report from Parson's office also said Veterans Commission Director Larry Kay, Deputy Director Bryan Hunt and some others also should be fired.
However, he didn't repeat that call Monday.
"I think the commission has to make that decision," Parson said. "My job's to advocate for veterans for this state."
EARLIER COVERAGE:
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri Lt. Gov. Mike Parson wants the head of the St. Louis Veterans Home removed in response to claims that patients are being mistreated.
Parson on Monday called for Administrator Rolando Carter's ouster. He alleged that there have been issues with medications, turnover and transparency. The lieutenant governor also wants the assistant administrator out.
Neither Carter nor his second-in-command immediately responded to Associated Press requests for comment Monday.
Calls for a change of leadership follow months of complaints by some families and staff that patients are receiving poor care.
Carter previously told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that complaints are minor. He said he's instituted changes in response.
Previous investigations haven't uncovered any wrongdoing. Another investigation by the Department of Public Safety is ongoing.