State Auditor Rob Sand says his office will conduct an audit of the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown.
Sand says the audit comes at the request of State Representative Sue Cahill, a Democrat from Marshalltown. Cahill tells Sand the audit is needed after the unexpected layoffs in July of eleven full-time staff. She says these cuts were made without input from the Legislature and occurred despite the home receiving an additional one million dollars in state funding during the budget process.
Cahill says in her letter to Sand that the cuts are in direct conflict of their mission to “provide a continuum of care to Iowa’s veterans and their spouses in an environment focusing on individualized services to enhance their quality of life.”
Karl Lettow of the Iowa Veterans Home released this statement in response:
“We are aware of the press release requesting an audit. We just received the results of our FY23 annual state audit with no discrepancies, and we’re already in the FY24 process. We always fully cooperate within the scope of any audit engagement letter. Our new structure is built to improve service delivery for our residents. Unfortunately, there’s been disinformation throughout the transition, and the main points of the press release also appear misinformed and factually wrong. The assertions that 11 employees were laid off and the realignment would negatively affect our quality of care are objectively, verifiably false. The fact new positions were simultaneously created has been consistently, selectively omitted by multiple sources. In the end, the vast majority of the affected staff filled the new positions created by the realignment and three were promoted. Three others will pursue other opportunities, but IVH currently has multiple open positions available. Our people are what make Iowa Veterans Home the greatest place in Iowa for our veterans and spouses. Thanks to them, we’ve achieved and sustained a 5-Star CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid) rating since 2016, meaning IVH has been in the top 10-percent of long-term care facilities in the U.S. for eight straight years. Any change we even consider, must improve our home for our residents and staff. Our realignment is already proving to enhance our service delivery and quality of care. Providing more than 30 staff supporting activities, direct interaction with residents has actually increased since the changes. We invite anyone interested to visit and see for themselves.”
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