The troubled Arizona State Veteran Home passed a surprise inspection by state health officials. A team of surveyors from the Arizona Department of Health Services visited the home last week on behalf of the federal Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services to recertify the home, state health officials said Monday.
The team spent three days at the Phoenix home that cares for some of the state’s oldest and most venerable war veterans.
“The deficiency-free survey also allows the facility to be re-licensed by the state Department of Health Services,” Michael Murphy, a department spokesman, said in a press release.
The home was fined $5,200 by the state and $10,000 by the federal government after an unannounced inspection in February found substandard care at the home.
At the time, health officials found patients ignored and unattended. In some cases, they were left to sit in soiled undergarments. The findings led to the resignation of Patrick Chorpenning, director of the Arizona Department of Veterans Services, which oversees the home.
It also sparked joint legislative hearings where lawmakers studied what went wrong at the home and looked for ways to improve conditions.
