Patrick Chorpenning, the director of the Arizona Veterans Services, resigned in the wake of a scandal about conditions at a nursing home for veterans. Complaints about veterans left in soiled undergarments, and covered in bodily fluids from leaking medical devices prompted an examination of the Arizona State Veteran Home in Phoenix.
The home, which has 200 beds serving primarily veterans of World War II and the Korean War, was fined $10,000 by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a result of the report.Gov. Janet Napolitano relieved the director of the department, Patrick Chorpenning, of his duties associated with the home on Monday, and he resigned on Tuesday, saying that “in light of what has taken place in the press, I feel it is in your best interest that I resign.”
“I am certain that after the investigation into the Arizona State Veteran Home is complete,” he added in a two-paragraph letter to the governor, “there will be a complete exoneration of the charges.”
Mr. Chorpenning, a former marine who was seriously wounded in Vietnam, had also been criticized in the report for hiring his wife and cousin at the home, findings that Ms. Napolitano referred to the state attorney general for further inquiry.
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A lawyer for the veterans home responded to the Arizona Department of Health Services on Monday with a detailed plan for correcting each accusation regarding care for the residents, who are mostly age 70 to 94. Two other employees at the nursing home have been fired, two have resigned and four were reprimanded, said Ms. Lecuyer, the governor’s spokeswoman.
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