MARION - Responding to a letter sent to him late last month by four Illinois legislators, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James Peake said Dr. Peter Almenoff will not lead the VA's quality and safety efforts in his new position as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health and Quality Safety in Washington.

Almenoff formerly directed the VA Heartland Network, which is responsible for all activities at the VA Medical Center in Marion.

"He will report to Dr. William Duncan, the VA's Associate Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Quality and Safety," Peake told Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, and Barack Obama, D-Chicago, as well as Congressmen Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, and John Shimkus, R-Collinsville.

"Dr. Almenoffs new position is not a promotion from his previous position as network director for VlSN 15, where he managed an operating budget of approximately $1.2 billion annually," Peake wrote. "In his new position, he will have no direct authority to independently hire or fire, or manage budgets. His supervisory responsibilities will be significantly reduced from what they were previously."

Peake said Almenoff is uniquely qualified to support the VA's quality efforts.

"He is recognized nationwide as a leading authority in measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of care provided in intensive care settings and is widely known for his ability to find ways to quantifiably measure health care quality," Peake said. "An Administrative Board of Investigation charged with reviewing events at that facility in 2007 also examined Dr. Almenoff's role and did not find him culpable."

Durbin said Wednesday he believes Peake addressed the concerns that he, Obama, Costello and Shimkus had raised about Almenoff.

"His supervisory responsibilities are being significantly reduced from what they were previously and he will not have direct authority to hire or fire employees, or manage budgets," Durbin said. "We will continue to monitor the progress at Marion VMAC and when red flags like this are raised in the future, we will not hesitate to ask the necessary questions to see that our veterans are receiving the care they deserve."

Durbin and his colleagues had previously described Almenoff as a VA official with a "questionable track record of ensuring quality and safety at a VA medical care facility in Illinois."

They said the VA reviewed the Marion facility after nine confirmed deaths at the Marion hospital last year and found easily identifiable problems there.

"We are not aware of any efforts by the network to fix these problems in the months before the spike in mortality levels," the legislators said in their letter to Peake. "Indeed, the department's reviews identified certain deficiencies with the network led by Dr. Almenoff."

The lawmakers added that the role of the network in the failure of the Marion facility was never formally reviewed, nor were network officials included in the Administrative Board of Investigation review.