ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY THE ROANOKE TIMES
Director, associate director were on forced leave after complaining to regional boss.
The director and associate director of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem have been temporarily reassigned while an investigation of them continues.
Director John Presley will go to the Veterans Integrated Service Network 7 (VISN) center in Atlanta, and Associate Director William Delamater will go to VISN 9 in Nashville. The reassignments start Monday and are limited to 30 days, officials said Friday.
Dr. Rajiv Jain, chief of the center's medical staff, will continue as acting director of the Salem center, which employs about 1,500 and has an annual budget of about $100million.
An investigation of administrative issues at the Salem facility was ordered this month after Presley and Delamater both took complaints to Dr. Leroy Gross, director of VISN 6, which oversees the Salem center.
Gross said he first heard from Presley, then from Delamater. He said the issues involved did not have to do with patient care, but were "severe."
Presley had placed Delamater on administrative leave in February, but his reasons for doing so have not been made public.
Gross assembled an inquiry panel, which spent several days at the Salem center interviewing staff. After getting the panel's preliminary findings this month, Gross placed Presley on forced leave and continued Delamater's forced leave.
He said he didn't want any chance of reprisals against staff members.
Gross received the final report Tuesday.
Since federal law limits forced leave, the reassignments buy investigators more time to review the findings and conduct more interviews, Dr. C. Alex Alexander, VISN 6 chief medical officer, said Friday in Gross' absence.
"We need time to get every side of the story," he said.
Presley, who is past age 65, became director in 1992 when the previous director was removed because of management problems. Presley had a reputation as a troubleshooter for the VA. Delamater, who graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1967, came to the Salem hospital in October 1994 from a VA center in Clarksburg, W.Va.
In their new assignments, they will assist the network directors, Alexander said.
The Salem hospital is one of eight VA centers in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia and a free-standing clinic in Winston-Salem that are overseen by VISN6.
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