Miami VA has an A/C problem. Now, Sens. Scott and Rubio are ‘alarmed’ and want answers

The Miami VA has a chronic problem: The air conditioning keeps breaking, endangering patients and employees amid South Florida’s dangerous heat, and drawing the attention of U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio.

The two Florida senators sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough last week, stating that they were “alarmed at the lack of adequate air conditioning” at the Miami VA, 1201 NW 16th St. in Miami. The issue developed earlier this month and forced the hospital to move some patients to other floors and temporarily suspend elective surgeries, as the Miami Herald has reported.

“Not only does this interrupt veterans’ care, but it presents an unsafe working environment for the medical staff at the facility, including nurses reporting mold. Miami VA has been using portable AC units, and veterans and hospital employees continue to complain about the uncomfortable heat inside the building,” reads the letter. “Unfortunately, this is not a one-off event as similar issues have previously occurred that led to the relocation of veteran patients due to dangerous heat. It is being reported that it will take three months to re-open the closed floors in the hospital, causing prolonged disruption to care for veterans.”

The hospital also had air conditioning issues in June, though problems tend to occur nearly every summer, Registered Nurse Bill Frogameni previously told the Herald. He’s the director of the Miami VA’s National Nurses United, the union of registered nurses. The Miami Herald earlier this month filed a public record request with the VA for invoices of air-conditioning repairs for the Miami veterans hospital.

We’re “grateful for Senators Rubio and Scott probing our air conditioning disaster and demanding answers. NNU shares the concern for our veterans and those of us who care for them. Safety was compromised and care delayed when patients had to be moved all over the facility or veterans were stuck in the ER for 48 hours,” Frogameni said in a Monday statement, noting that the union had repeatedly asked management for a timeline of when the A/C would be “reliable.”

The senators, in their letter, said they “expect a swift and lasting solution to the A/C issues at the Miami VA to ensure that this does not continue to impede the delivery of care to Florida’s veterans,” and asked myriad questions, including for information on how many veterans were affected and what steps the VA is taking to ensure that a future problem like this can be avoided.

They also questioned the VA on why two of the seven VA medical centers in Florida — Bay Pines in the Tampa Bay area and West Palm Beach VA in South Florida — received a one-star rating in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services annual Overall Quality Star Ratings. This is the first time VA hospitals were included in the federal agency’s yearly assessments, which looks at five categories: mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience, and timely and effective care. The Miami VA received a four-star rating.

What the Miami VA is doing

On Sunday, Miami VA Director Kalautie S. JangDhari told staff in an email obtained by the Miami Herald that two backup chillers were installed and that employees had begun to move relocated patients back to their original rooms.

But a long-term fix could take years. JangDhari in the email told staff that the hospital had “already invested in the long-term viability” of its air conditioning system, with the Miami VA awarded more than $15 million for two “significant HVAC infrastructure projects that should be complete by 2027.”

“Although some may question why 2027, I assure you with the designing, coordination, construction and varied collaboration efforts associated with a 1.1 M square foot building, that is reasonable timeframe,” JangDhari wrote. “We have also implemented additional contingency measures, in which we believe will help us tackle the record heat we are currently facing here in Miami.”

What caused the most recent air-conditioning problem?

“While flushing the lines of one of our chillers, we found large amounts of debris that clogged and stopped the chilled water flow,” JangDhari explained in the email.

“We wonder why this problem — and many of our infrastructure problems — take years to address despite clear red flags ... we are the federal government — the same deep-pocketed federal government that was able to develop a COVID vaccine in less than a year,” said Frogameni, the director of the Miami VA’s nursing union. “We accomplished that public health miracle, but we can’t get the A/C right at the Miami VA. We can’t say who is to blame, but this is a shameful failure of our veterans and those of us who care for them.”