Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 17, 1993 TAG: 9306170302
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Jain, 43, has been working in the interim position for nearly a year after the ouster of Dr. Larry Edwards, who was embroiled for months in a labor/management conflict at the Salem complex.
During that period, bodies of three patients turned up on the VA hospital's sprawling grounds, fueling contentions that problems between staff and management had tpilled over into patient care.
That period of turmoil and recrimination is nearly behind them now, Jain believes.
"I think we are about 80 to 85 percent in terms of recovery," said Jain, who has worked at the hospital 14 years. "We still have room for improvement, things we want to work on. With the progress we have made and the support from the staff, and with Dr. Presley's leadership, I feel confident we are on the right track."
Dr. John Presley was brought in as the center's new director last June, replacing Clark Graninger, who was removed in the wake of the conflict.
Jain said he plans to build on the work he has already begun as interim chief of staff, including improving teamwork and communications, particularly with the veterans the hospital serves.
"I want to get to the point where patients are getting care in a timely manner, so they don't have to wait for appointments for treatment as long as they [have] waited in the past," he said.
Jain also is optimistic that reforms in national health care eventually will strengthen VA health programs. He would like the hospitals to reach out to veterans whose medical needs are not related to their military service, a group that receives low priority at centers around the country.
At Salem, Jain says those veterans, even though they are assigned low priority, do receive emergency and inpatient care but cannot receive the kind of long-term care that veterans who were wounded in action receive.
Jain said he also wants to continue recruitment of highly qualified doctors and nurses. Since Presley became director last year, the center has made strides in retaining such professionals.
Jain was educated at Panjab University in Ambala, India, and received his medical degree from Saurashtra University in Jamnagar, India.
He was an assistant resident at Philadelphia Mission Hospital in Ambala, and completed an internship and residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford, Conn. He received fellowships in hematology at Mount Sinai and the University of Virginia before beginning his work as chief of hematology at Salem in 1979.
In March 1992, he was promoted to associate chief of staff and assumed his interim chief-of-staff duties four months later.
by CNB