Montana VA has permanent director
Duane Gill has been appointed as the executive director for the Montana Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
He has been serving as the interim director since July 2023.
Before that, Gill was the executive director of the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System since June 2020. He had previously served as the healthcare system’s associate director from 2014 to 2017, leaving the position to serve as the deputy director of a larger healthcare system in Colorado, and later as the acting director of VA medical facilities in Kentucky and Colorado, according to the VA.
Gill is a U.S. Navy Veteran and fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He received a master’s degree in management from Indiana Wesleyan University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Eastern Kentucky University.
Gill joined the VA in 2002 as a secretary in the chaplain’s office of VA’s Robely Rex Medical Center in Louisville, Ky.
Montana VA Health Care System serves more than 49,000 enrolled veterans across Montana who are cared for by a staff of 1,400 at 18 sites across the state. One third of Montana VA employees are veterans, according to the VA.
Gill’s appointment as interim director in 2023 came after allegations of mismanagement and patient abuse.
In February 2024, the VA’s Office of the Inspector General released a report regarding the former chief of staff’s provision of care without privileges, care deficiencies and leadership failures.
The OIG received four complaints from Jan. 7 to June 22, 2022 regarding then Chief of Staff Dr. J.P. Maganito, which included the following allegations:
- Maganito provided pregnancy care outside of approved privileges
- Maganito provided substandard advanced pregnancy care to a female patient
- Maganito provided substandard care during gynecologic surgery and post-operative care for another female patient, resulting in a negative clinical outcome
- Appropriate credentialing and privileging processes were not followed for Maganito.
- Maganito was providing pregnancy care outside the scope of his privileges.
The OIG initiated an inspection in June 2022 and conducted a site visit in August 2022.
The report found that Maganito violated Veterans Health Administration policy by acting outside of approved privileges; gave deficient quality of care to a pregnant patient; deficiencies in the quality of gynecologic surgery and post-operative care he provided for another patient.
The report also found facility leaders had not followed the privileging processes and VHA policy on state licensing board reporting.
“Montana VA deeply regrets the circumstances that led to the investigation by the Office of Inspector General (OIG). We take such incidents with utmost seriousness, as the well-being of our patients is our top priority,” Gill said in a February release.
Maganito resigned from the Montana VA in August 2022 and MTVA sent notifications to all the state licensing boards in the states that Maganito is licensed in.
An OIG report issued in Jan. 2023 found a pattern of patient mistreatment at the Fort Harrison VA Medical Center and the Miles City Community Living Center, as well as issues with care coordination and discharge planning, and facility leaders’ noncompliance with state licensing board requirements.
That investigation was prompted by a 2021 complaint and found additional issues going back to 2018.
The OIG issued a comprehensive review report of the Montana VA in 2021 from a 2020 inspection.
“Comprehensive healthcare inspections are one element of the OIG’s overall efforts to ensure that the nation’s veterans receive high quality and timely VA healthcare services. The inspections are performed approximately every three years for each facility. The OIG selects and evaluates specific areas of focus each year,” according to the OIG report.
The OIG conducted a detailed inspection in two administrative and six clinical areas, issuing eight recommendations to the director, chief of staff and associate director for patient care services.
“The number of recommendations should not be used as a gauge for the overall quality of care provided at this
healthcare system. The intent is for healthcare system leaders to use these recommendations as a road map to help improve operations and clinical care. The recommendations address systems issues and other less-critical findings that may eventually interfere with the delivery of quality health care,” according to the report.
