VA understates patient waiting times, IG says

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VA understates patient waiting times, IG says
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 10:21:09 EDT


An inspector general report raises doubts about whether the Department of Veterans Affairs is doing a good job of reducing the waiting time for medical appointments.

A report released Monday said auditors found VA was understating waiting times by excluding some patients from the count and by claiming that some appointments were late because that was when veterans wanted to be seen, although there was no evidence in the patient files to verify such a claim.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, called the report “disturbing” and described it as proof that “VA continues to skew its outpatient reports.”

“This is simply not acceptable,” Akaka said in a statement. “I am concerned that VA’s underreporting of waiting times and backlog volumes makes it harder to identify problem facilities and allocate resources effectively.”

A lack of reliable data makes it hard to set budgets or judge performance, Akaka said, adding that he also isn’t pleased that VA is arguing over details of the report rather than concentrating on making improvements.

VA officials have been claiming that 96 percent of veterans seeking primary care and 95 percent of veterans seeking specialty care were seen within 30 days of their desired dates.


Rest of article at: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/09/military_va_waittimes_070911w/