Your April 27 article concerning the request for an investigation at Togus cites concern that quality of care at Togus is suffering because it does not have enough clinical staff. This is simply not true. The actual number of patients seen by our clinicans is reasonable by Veterans Affairs or community standards and the care we are providing continues to be excellent.

Togus is surveyed every three years by the same accrediting organization that reviews private hospitals. This organization, The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) recently renewed Togus’ accreditation for a full three-year period. Our scores of 91 for the hospital program and 98 for long-term care were higher than our scores of three years ago.

Togus has always had a limited number of specialist physicians. When one retires, as our neurologist did more than a year ago, it is often difficult to find a suitable replacement. We understand referrals to Boston for neurological services have been a hardship for many veterans and are making every effort to find a replacement. We are increasing our clinical staff to deal with increasing workloads. And we have recently hired a second cardiologist for our staff and an additional primary care physician. We are also beginning recruitment efforts for a second pulmonologist (lung specialist).

In recent years, Togus has increased veterans’ access to VA health care by opening community-based clinics. It has made rehabilitation programs more accessible to veterans by offering them on an outpatient basis. It has reduced patient stays in hospital beds by providing more outpatient procedures and avoided some hospitalizations altogether with better routine and preventative care. We will maintain the clinical staff required to continue these important changes and to maintain the quality of all our current programs.

We recognize these changes must be made in partnership with Maine veterans and the organizations that represent them. We will do all in our power to strengthen that partnership. John H. Sims Jr. Togus Center director Arnold Brown, M.D. Chief of staff