Doug Paxton, who served as director of the Roseburg VA Healthcare System, has been reassigned as assistant director at the Huntington VA Medical Center in West Virginia.
David L. Whitmer, who served as chief operating officer at VA Sunshine Healthcare Network in Florida, will serve as interim director.
Paxton faced criticism in recent weeks over a New York Times article that showed the facility had engaged in a practice of turning away patients against the recommendations of doctors in order to improve quality-of-care metrics, claims Paxton has denied.
"This action was necessary as a step to improve care for Veterans at Roseburg," Dr. Carolyn Clancy, executive in charge at the Veterans Health Administration, said in a statement.
Related: Wyden: Roseburg VA Officials Admitted To 'Inappropriate Admissions' System
"There are times that facility leadership needs to change in order to usher in a new approach that will demonstrate we are committed to delivering results for Veterans and taxpayers," she said.
News of Paxton's reassignment came the same day the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced it would take an "aggressive new approach" at low-performing medical centers, including Roseburg.
The VA rates its facilities on what is known as its SAIL star rating system. Low performing facilities like Roseburg receive one-star ratings out of five. The New York Times reported Roseburg had been turning away patients in order to improve that metric.
“I think the New York Times story is completely false, and it’s completely based on hearsay,” Paxton said in an interview with OPB's Think Out Loud.
In January, Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said Roseburg officials admitted to him in a meeting that they had been using an "inappropriate admissions system" for over a year, and that the VA has since put a stop to it. It's unclear if Wyden was referring directly to practices outlined in the New York Times article.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it is taking steps to quickly improve low-performing facilities, including creating a central leadership to oversee improvement at the centers.
“President Trump has made it clear that our veterans deserve only the best when it comes to their healthcare, and that’s why we are focusing on improving our lowest performing facilities nationwide,” VA Secretary David Shulkin said in a statement.
“We will employ tight timelines for facilities to demonstrate improvement, and if low performance persists, we will make swift changes – including replacing facility leaders – until we achieve the rapid improvements that veterans and taxpayers expect from VA.”