SEATTLE - Veteran Affairs hospitals in the Puget Sound region have their Gold Seal of Accreditation back after a recent visit by inspectors showed serious problems at the hospitals have been corrected.

Officials with VA Puget Sound Health Care System have scrambled the past couple of months to correct the problems after a medical standards group threatened to pull its endorsement of two area hospitals after an inspection last June.

KING

The Veterans Administration Hospital in Seattle

Conditions at local VA hospitals were scrutinized after disclosures last February that war veterans were not getting adequate care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which stunned and outraged the public and lawmakers. 

Inspectors with the Chicago-based Joint Commission, a nonprofit hospital standards group, in May assessed VA hospitals at Tacoma American Lake and Seattle and a clinic in Bremerton and said psychiatric ward conditions posed an "immediate threat to life."

Officials with the VA health system said the problems mostly amounted to removing fixtures in mental health units to reduce the risk of suicide.

Joint Commission placed a "preliminary denial" on the VA hospitals' Gold Seal of Accreditation and gave them an August deadline to remedy the problem.  A July 31st visit by inspectors showed the hospitals had taken the necessary corrective action and took away the "preliminary denial."

The accreditation process is "voluntary" for VA hospitals and the Seattle hospital said it was not in danger of closing.