Report: VA “paused” sending teams to help poor-performing hospitals

VA hospital
VA hospital

Via the Wall Street Journal/Fox News:

The Department of Veterans Affairs suspended a program that sent teams of doctors and monitors to try to improve its worst-performing facilities for approximately two years, according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal, citing agency doctors and internal records, reported that the visits were “paused” beginning in early 2011. Dr. Carolyn Clancy, the head of the agency’s quality and safety program, said the VA had begun to revive the program about a year ago.

The Journal report specifies seven VA hospitals that have consistently received a rating of one star out of a possible five from the VA since at least 2011. Those hospitals are located in Augusta, Ga.; Little Rock, Ark.; Providence, R.I.; Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; and Puget Sound (Seattle), Wash. The star rating system measures hospitals according to key performance standards, including death rates among acute-care patients and among patients suffering from congestive heart failure and pneumonia. Length of stays and readmission rates are also taken into consideration.

It is not clear why the agency halted the visits, though the Journal report cites current and former VA doctors who claim that top managers of the agency played down the utility of basing the ratings system on specific medical outcomes.

Dr. Clancy claimed to the Journal that each of the hospitals with the poorest rating “has gotten at least one visit in the last year or year and a half.”

In related and equally disturbing news, The Hill reports that nearly 60,000 – that’s 60,000 – had to wait at least 90 days to see a doctor, and an additional 63,000 didn’t receive an initial appointment at all over a 10 year period:

The White House on Monday came under increased pressure to launch a criminal probe of the Veterans Affairs Department after an audit found more than 100,000 veterans were kept waiting for medical care.

The audit uncovered evidence of widespread tampering of documents at Veterans Affairs (VA) clinics, with schedulers receiving direction from their superiors to use β€œunofficial lists” to make the waiting times for appointments β€œappear more favorable.”

The audit found more than 57,000 veterans waited at least 90 days to see a doctor, and an additional 63,000 people over the past decade never received an initial appointment at all.

Republican leaders in Congress called the findings a β€œnational disgrace” as members of both parties demanded the Justice Department prosecute the officials responsible.

β€œThe Department of Justice should get off the sidelines and start actively pursuing charges where applicable to the fullest extent of the law,” said Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

In the Senate, 11 Democrats joined 10 Republicans in urging an β€œeffective and prompt” investigation by federal authorities. The leaders of the push β€” Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) β€” said criminal charges shouldn’t wait on the results of a VA inspector general (IG) investigation that will be released in August.

β€œThe spreading and growing scale of apparent criminal wrongdoing is fast outpacing the criminal investigative resources of the IG, and the revelations in the interim report only highlight the urgency of involvement by the Department of Justice,” the senators wrote.

Make sure to read the whole thing. Β I don’t know whether to cry or scream – or both. Our veterans put it all on the line, literally – they most definitely do not deserve this when they come home.