Dennis Wagner

The Republic | azcentral.com

The Phoenix VA Medical Center is about to get its fifth new boss since former Director Sharon Helman was removed in mid-2014 amid the nationwide veterans health-care crisis that was first exposed in Arizona.

Director Deborah Amdur, who has led the hospital for the past nine months, announced Friday that she is retiring for health reasons and will be replaced by Barbara Fallen, director of the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System covering parts of California and Nevada.

Fallen is expected to serve as an interim director until a permanent replacement for Amdur can be found. The transition accentuates long-term instability at the Phoenix VA Health Care System, which operates seven outpatient clinics throughout Arizona in addition to the hospital in central Phoenix.

After Arizona whistleblowers triggered a 2014 VA furor over delayed care, mismanagement and other systemic flaws, four administrators at the Carl T. Hayden Medical Center in Phoenix were suspended and eventually fired. Others retired, resigned or transferred.

Not one of Phoenix VA's top five administrators today was in place when the scandal broke in April 2014. Most of them, known collectively as the hospital's PENTAD, are on temporary assignment. Many second-tier managers also abandoned the Phoenix medical center, leaving voids in departmental leadership.

Although the hospital at Seventh Street and Indian School Road has been a focal point for VA reform efforts — visited by President Barack Obama and VA Secretary Bob McDonald — the executive suite has been a revolving door of temporary leaders assigned to 90-day shifts.

The southwest regional office of the Veterans Health Administration, based in Gilbert, also has been through a series of fill-in bosses — four in the past 2½ years. Marie Weldon, currently listed as acting regional director, also oversees the Los Angeles-based VA Desert Pacific Healthcare System. Weldon described Fallen as “an experienced leader who will continue the tremendous effort being made to improve access to high quality health care for veterans in the Phoenix area.”

The Phoenix VA Health Care System has about 86,000 enrolled veterans, about 3,400 employees and a $650 million operating budget.

Its new director, Fallen, could not immediately be reached. She rose through the VA system from a career as a clinical nutritionist and has been in charge of the Loma Linda VA Medical Center since 2013, according to her official biography.

Amdur, who began her VA career as a social worker and arrived in December from a directorship in White River Junction, Vermont, declared her top priority was to regain trust of veterans by delivering timely, high-quality service.

Helman was suspended in May 2014, later fired and convicted of filing a false financial disclosure. She is pursing a lawsuit to overturn her termination. Three subordinates who also got fired are believed to be pursuing legal actions related to their terminations.

Since Helman left, no Phoenix VA hospital boss has served more than 13 months.

Here are the past four Phoenix hospital directors: