Pursuit's Take
Since the nationwide scandal on patient wait times in 2014, OIG has continued to identify problems with VHA managing access to health care. Since August 2015, OIG reviews at six VA medical facilities—Colorado Springs, Houston, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Tampa—showed that VHA continues to experience significant issues with the reliability of veteran wait times, scheduling practices, consult management, and access to Choice.
In this audit, OIG conducted a statistical sample review of more than 1,400 appointments consisting of 618 new patient appointments, 389 Choice authorizations, 210 discontinued or canceled consults from FY 2016, and 210 specialty care consults open more than 30 days as of March 23, 2016.
OIG’s audit estimated that 36 percent of the appointments for new patients at facilities within VISN 6 during the relevant time period had wait times longer than 30 days. Significantly higher than the wait time data that VHA’s electronic scheduling system showed. Among other consequences, the inaccurate wait time data resulted in a significant number of veterans not being eligible for treatment through Choice.
This audit demonstrates that many of the same access to care conditions reported over the last decade continued to exist within VISN 6 medical facilities in 2016.