Two high-level state employees brought on to manage a pair of controversial veterans’ homes in the early days of the pandemic filed a whistleblower lawsuit Wednesday in Massachusetts.
Eric Sheehan, a one-time official in the Massachusetts Department of Veterans’ Services, and Beth Scheffler, the former acting chief nursing officer at a veterans’ facility in the city of Chelsea, filed the suits. They were fired during the height of the pandemic after raising concerns about poor health practices, shoddy record-keeping and other issues, according to published reports.
Sheehan, a former Marine who wrote healthcare regulations for long-term care facilities, was hired as the state’s assistant secretary of veterans’ homes and was brought in to oversee the Chelsea and Holyoke veterans’ facilities.
More than 100 veterans died at the two facilities during the COVID pandemic, according to local media. Top building managers were indicted for neglect and bodily injury charges but were eventually found not guilty of the charges.
Calls to both Chelsea and the Holyoke Soldiers Home were not returned by McKnight’s production deadline. The Department of Veterans Services said it does not comment on potential litigation.
Scheffler, described as a regulations expert who spent 20 years investigating healthcare facilities for the Massachusetts Department of Health, was recruited by Sheehan to manage the nursing staff at Chelsea.
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