Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough (Photo: VA)
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough acknowledged that he is “frustrated” with inconsistency in how medical appointment wait time data is calculated and recorded within the department’s health care systems, and promised changes on the issue later this year.
During testimony before the House Appropriations Committee last week, McDonough said he is concerned about delivering accurate information on appointment timeliness to veterans as they seek to resume care that was deferred or canceled in recent years.
“If you look at our average wait times across the system, they’re good, but it’s a big system and we’re coming out of a pandemic,” he said. “So I fear that there are outliers where people are waiting too long.”
Wait times at VA facilities became a national scandal in 2014 after whistleblowers revealed that officials were manipulating data to cover up long delays in care to meet performance metrics.
During President Donald Trump’s administration, the department began posting wait-time data online for all VA hospitals and clinics in an effort to provide more transparency into how long veterans have to wait for routine or specialty appointments (and to argue for broader use of community care options for veterans facing longer waits).
But in a report released April 7, the VA Inspector General’s office said much of that data remains confusing and misleading.
“[The Veterans Health Administration] has sometimes presented wait times with different methodologies, using inconsistent start dates that affect the overall calculations without clearly and accurately presenting that information to the public,” officials wrote.
In response to similar concerns raised by lawmakers, McDonough said that “we have to do a better job with that” and said he expects an announcement on changes related to the wait time issues in coming months.
“We’re working really hard on it because I am frustrated with it myself,” he said.
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Author: Military Times
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