More Info From that VA OIG Report on the Phoenix VAMC
Jonn’s written an article already today about the VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and their report on the Phoenix VAMC released yesterday. Here’s a few additional details from the VA’s OIG interim report.
- Average waiting time for first appointment, as reported by the VA Hospital in Phoenix: 24 days, based on a “statistical sample of 226 veterans”, with 43% waiting longer than 14 days
- Average waiting time for first appointment, actual: 115 days (same sample of 226 veterans), with approx 84% waiting longer than 14 days
- Number of vets on the Phoenix VAMC “official” electronic waiting list: 1,400
- Number of vets found to have been waiting for care but not on any official electronic waiting list – e.g., that “secret waiting list” that Jonn mentioned in his article: 1,700
In case you were wondering: the “secret list” was over 20% larger than the official electronic waiting list. Pretty neat, eh?
Also: it seems like “waiting time” reported to DC only started when someone went on the “official” electronic waiting list. So, yeah – I think there just might have been something shady going on.
If you’re interested, here is interim VA OIG report. Only about 30 pages total, so if you want to look it over it shouldn’t take that long.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Veteran Health Care, Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department
That sounds about right. I went to the Phoenix VA to declare myself a new vet the day after I ETSed and I didn’t the date for my first actual physical snail-mailed to me until about three and a half months later. I didn’t even get a doctor, but a nurse practitioner.
Someone else here said it better. If we could put Congress into the VA system for healthcare, if would be fixed post haste and be a stellar healthcare organization.
Sparks,
That would be Marcus Luttrell who said it recently. I said it when Ted “the Swimmer” ended up at Duke to get treatment for his cancer…