OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs knew for months that shower heads, handrails and other fixtures posed serious suicide risks to Seattle-area psychiatric patients, but refused to fix the problems, inspectors said in a report released Friday.

The VA said it scrambled to remedy problems in Seattle after a medical standards group threatened to pull its endorsement of two area hospitals last month. Health care for the nation’s veterans has been rocked in recent months by accounts of shoddy treatment at the Department of Defense’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was unsatisfied with the agency’s response and scheduled a flight home to personally inspect the Seattle VA hospital’s progress on Friday.

The Chicago-based Joint Commission, a nonprofit hospital standards group, said psychiatric ward conditions posed an “immediate threat to life” after it inspected the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in May.

More at the AP