Putting Bay Pines right

The Veterans Administration's refusal to acknowledge that Bay Pines VA Medical Center has a problem with workplace discrimination and retaliation drew necessary intervention this week from a federal judge. The VA's continued stalling and failure to correct Bay Pines' workplace culture is an insult to every female employee or patient there. But the recalcitrance also wastes money that could be spent treating veterans, not fighting in court. When will the VA own Bay Pines' problems and fix them?

Bay Pines officials have been on notice for at least six years that women working at the fourth-busiest veterans' hospital faced a potentially hostile environment. That's when the first of four female plaintiffs, a neurologist, complained of gender, age and racial discrimination. Complaints from three more women followed and included claims of age discrimination. But Bay Pines didn't move to address the problem. Rather, it appears senior management worked to punish and discredit the women in retaliation. The women, including two more doctors, reported being stripped of committee assignments or duties, denied interviews for promotions and generally ostracized.

In July, a federal jury awarded up to $3.73 million in damages to the four women. The actual payout, due to federal law, will likely be capped at $1.33 million.

But even the jury award failed to get the VA's attention. No one at Bay Pines lost their job or was demoted. No new protocol was implemented to ensure such discrimination and retaliation didn't recur. Rather, when the plaintiffs sought the court's intervention to enforce the jury verdict, the VA responded that it already had an adequate system for handing discrimination or retaliation complaints.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas B. McCoun III, in an order dated Monday, was incredulous: "There is no showing permitting a conclusion that the discriminatory conduct will not recur or that the circumstances have changed such that the effects of the retaliatory hostile work environment have been eliminated."

McCoun ordered remediation training on workplace discrimination for senior staff and required that Bay Pines cease any policy or custom that leads to retaliation against individuals who file discrimination complaints. He also ordered that an independent third party review any disciplinary filings against the plaintiffs for the next three years. It's the very least the VA could do.

Women are a growing and important segment of the nation's fighting forces. In the years to come, they will increasingly be among the veterans who will rely on the VA for medical care. It is only appropriate that when they arrive they find a staff whose female members are valued and rewarded like their male counterparts. The VA needs to stop stalling and fix Bay Pines. If a big jury verdict does not force a change in behavior, then it's up to the federal courts to require it.