Families of our nation’s elderly veterans should expect five-star treatment for their loved ones at VA nursing homes. But a newly released survey by the Department of Veterans Affairs reveals the shocking truth.

Nearly half of all VA nursing homes rate only one out of five stars. Further, veterans at these homes are five times more likely to report pain than residents of other nursing homes.

VA records consistently reveal that its home criteria ratings are as much as five percent worse than private sector providers’ ratings. Examples include deterioration of residents’ health and the “necessity” for anti-psychotic drug prescription.

The Defense and the Facts

Non-VA nursing homes have regulations requiring they document their survey data. This data is made public for families deciding where to place a loved one. The primary element families look at is the care a nursing home provides its residents, documented by the ratings of inspection results. Yet this public documentation of ratings is not required of the VA.

“I still can’t get over that this information is not available to people who are looking for a veteran’s home,” said Robyn Grant, director of public policy and advocacy at the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care. “That’s just unacceptable,” she added.

VA spokesman Curt Cashour said the department is “committed to continuous improvement efforts in all of the [VA nursing homes] and demonstrating performance that is as good [as] or better than private sector facilities.”

VA nursing homes assist as many as 46,000 veterans annually in 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. They have stayed low on the public’s radar until recent years. What drew attention to them now? The somber stories of preventable deaths and similar scandals.

The Stories Reveal the Truth

Earl James Zook was a Navy vet who’d served in Vietnam. His wife Leslie Roe placed Zook in a VA home when his increasing dementia caused him to wander from home. The Alabama VA facility promised greater security to ensure his safety.

“I was told how good it is — by VA, of course,” Roe said.

The VA did not tell her the institution was one of many to score worse than private homes in eight of the 11 criteria.

Three months later, Zook wandered away from the facility into the woods. Staff told Roe that a faulty door in the home was to blame. Zook was never seen again, and after a year of searching with helicopters and dogs, police declared Zook legally dead.

According to Cashour, the VA has taken more security precautions since then, but it was too late for Zook.

Veteran Don Ruch’s family placed him in a VA home to recover from an aneurysm that had caused paralysis. Ruch’s health declined as his condition worsened and a gaping hole festered in his leg. Staff quietly tended this wound for weeks, and since he was unable to see it, told him it was a “small bruise.”

When he finally asked to see a picture of his wound, Ruch was shocked. The veteran experienced a fall back into post-traumatic stress disorder and his family questioned the trust they had placed in the home. His niece had to remove him from the facility to a private nursing home in order to ensure full recovery.

Further stories collaborate the grim facts. A 93-year-old World War II veteran was drugged with a sedative leaving him passive and unable to function every morning. Others ended up in urgent care.

Steps Toward a Solution

The VA made public its ratings as of Dec. 31, 2017, at the request of USA TODAY and The Boston Globe.

Cashour placed the blame for not making these ratings public on the Obama administration. He wrote in a statement June 12, however, “…under President Trump’s leadership, transparency and accountability have become hallmarks of VA.”

Many have advocated for a greater degree of transparency from the VA. One such voice is former deputy director of the Sunlight Foundation Alex Howard.

“There shouldn’t be a gap between the reality of how we’re treating people under the government’s care and public understanding of it,” Howard said. “This is not a situation where we’re concerned about some matter of national security, this is simply being honest about how well things are going.”

Or how well things are not going, as the case may be. Veterans are not safe in the places where they ought to be the most protected. Their lives of service are not being honored this way.