Clearing the Fog of War

Temple, Valley VA systems have longest waits in Texas

SAN ANTONIO — In the VA's third national snapshot of hospital waiting times, the agency said Thursday that veterans trying to get care for the first time in Temple's hospital and clinic network waited longer than anyone else in Texas for an appointment.

The VA, which is releasing the waiting-time figures twice each month, reported that new patients seeking primary care at the Olin E. Teague Veterans' Medical Center in Temple were expected to wait an average of 57 days.

That's almost twice as long as a new patient waits for an appointment in San Antonio, which, at 29 days, has the lowest waiting time in the state.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/Temple-Valley-VA-systems-have-longest-waits-in-5599160.php

Probe finds problems at Valley VA

SAN ANTONIO — Federal investigators have found that a Veterans Affairs clinic in Harlingen didn't comply with rules on the credentialing and privileging of surgeons and didn't pay private-practice physicians quickly enough, causing them to stop treating veterans.

The investigation, revealed Monday in a letter by the Office of Special Counsel to President Barack Obama, found issues at VA hospitals and clinics across the country.

The counsel's office, an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency, uncovered the problems while visiting the Harlingen-based Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System in early 2012. A system spokesman, Hugo Martinez, conceded that his clinics had seen problems.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/Probe-finds-problems-at-Valley-VA-5573672.php

Audit shows VA waiting times worse than reported

 SAN ANTONIO — A new VA audit shows the agency last week miscalculated the number of veterans who waited more than 30 days to see a doctor, with the number of long waits more than double what the VA first reported — including sharp increases in San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas.

The updated report released Thursday said 621,985 veterans across the country waited more than 30 days to get into a hospital, up from 242,059 from a May 15 survey.

In San Antonio, 5,016 VA patients, or 81/2 percent of 59,000 appointments, waited more than a month, up from 842 in mid-May.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/Audit-shows-VA-waiting-times-worse-than-reported-5565609.php

Long wait times at VA are a sign of the times

Veterans trying to schedule their first visits to a VA doctor wait longer in some cities than new patients seeing private physicians, but experts say the government is neither the problem nor the exception in patient access.

Long waits are a sign of the times, they say, and things likely will get worse for everyone — not only those relying on the Veterans Affairs Department.

“The big part of the problem is that we have a more or less infinite demand for medical services and a limited supply of physicians,” said Phil Miller, vice president of communications for Merritt Hawkins, an Irving-based physician recruiting firm that has studied waiting times in different cities. “That graph, the difference between demand and supply, keeps widening.”

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/Long-wait-times-at-VA-are-a-sign-of-the-times-5556711.php

Long waits prompt call for Valley VA hospital

SAN ANTONIO — Texas lawmakers urged the Veterans Affairs Department on Tuesday to build a hospital in Rio Grande Valley after the agency revealed patients there waited longer for care at two VA clinics than at any other facility in the country.

VA figures show patients at its clinics in Harlingen and McAllen waited an average of 85 days before getting appointments with a primary care physician. Patients trying to see a specialist waited 145 days — a revelation the prompted anger and calls for a Valley hospital.

“I am horrified by reports that our veterans in the Valley are waiting months for appropriate health care,” said state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville. “It's simply unconscionable.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/Long-waits-prompt-call-for-Valley-VA-hospital-5543312.php

57,000 veterans wait up to 3 months for care

SAN ANTONIO — An audit of hundreds of VA hospitals and clinics released Monday found that more than 57,400 patients had waited as long as three months for health care.

The report went on to say that just two veterans in the VA's San Antonio hospital and clinic network waited so long, while that was true for 257 patients in the Temple area. A similar number waited for care at facilities along the Coastal Bend.

The widely anticipated access report, delivered only days after acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson praised the San Antonio hospital network, and said that while the Audie Murphy VA Hospital had issues — access to care among them — it was well-run.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/57-000-veterans-wait-up-to-3-months-for-care-5539308.php

Audit finds most SA veterans get health care in a month or less

SAN ANTONIO — A VA audit released Monday revealed the vast majority of veterans had appointments to see doctors within a month, but it also found problems that included the manipulation of waiting times — a scheme that may have led to some patients' deaths.

Auditors scrutinizing Department of Veteran Affairs hospitals and clinics across the country found all but 4 percent of veterans in mid-May were scheduled to see a doctor or clinician within 30 days. But the report also said schedulers were pressured to use “inappropriate practices” to make waiting times “appear more favorable.”

More than one in every 10 scheduling workers alleged that higher-ups told them to enter an appointment date that was different from one sought by patients. The report said that occurred at least once in 76 percent of all VA facilities.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/Audit-finds-most-SA-veterans-get-health-care-in-a-5540311.php

VA chief praises San Antonio hospital system

SAN ANTONIO — Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson offered praise for the agency's San Antonio hospital system in a stop here Friday.

After meeting with patients and member of Congress, Gibson said that, while the Audie Murphy VA Hospital had issues, among them veterans' access to health care, it was well-run.

None of the access problems was “near the magnitude of what we have in other locations,” Gibson said, hinting that Audie Murphy was in far better shape than a Phoenix hospital where patients allegedly died while waiting for care.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/VA-chief-praises-San-Antonio-hospital-system-5535047.php

Acting VA secretary tours Audie Murphy

Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson visited a San Antonio VA hospital Friday and met with members of the area's congressional delegation.

His tour of the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center came a day after meeting with officials of a hospital system in Phoenix, Ariz., and revealing that 18 patients there had died while waiting for care.

He was to discuss immediate actions taken to address the recommendations outlined in a recent interim inspector general's report, and was to meet with the media after the lunch hour.

http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/military/article/Acting-VA-secretary-tours-Audie-Murphy-5534034.php

North Side hospital part of VA probe

The VA's inspector general confirmed last week that his office is investigating reports of patient waiting-list fraud at clinics in North San Antonio, Austin, and at a Temple hospital.

In a letter to House members, the agency's acting inspector general confirmed investigators were looking into allegations of misconduct at the VA's North Central Federal Clinic on Henderson Pass in north San Antonio, the Austin Outpatient Clinic and the Olin E. Teague Veterans' Medical Center in Temple.

The allegations at those Texas facilities are similar to charges of waiting-list manipulation at the Phoenix VA Health Care System that have sparked outrage among veterans groups and contributed to the resignation of Veterans Affairs Department Secretary Eric Shinseki last week.

Read more here: http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/communities/stone-oak/article/North-Side-hospital-part-of-VA-probe-5525175.php