WASHINGTON — At least 1,700 veterans were victims of apparently rigged lists that concealed their wait times for appointments at the Phoenix VA hospital, according to report Wednesday that hiked calls for the VA secretary to resign.
President Obama was said to find "extremely troubling" the interim report by the VA's acting inspector general and its assertion that “inappropriate scheduling practices” appear to be “a systemic problem nationwide."
The 35-page report focused on allegations of mismanagement and cooking the books at the troubled Phoenix VA hospital. It comes after years of similar government reports of chronically long wait times for vets around the country.
The report found that 1,700 vets in Phoenix were not registered on proper waiting lists, meaning that they "continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost."
Further, in dissecting the cases of 226 vets, the watchdog found that their average actual wait was 115 days even though the hospital’s records claimed they waited an average of 24 days for their first primary care appointment.
The investigation began after it was alleged that more than 40 vets died while waiting for appointments in Phoenix. The report said a more detailed review is ongoing to determine whether any deaths occurred as a result of the delays.
The inspector general told a Senate committee this month that his office had found no link between any delays and 17 Phoenix deaths.
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, a retired four-star general who himself was a wounded Vietnam War vet, voiced indignation at the findings.
"I have reviewed the interim report, and the findings are reprehensible to me, to this department and to veterans," he said.
But he did not resign even as at least four senators — two of them Democrats — called on him to go.
Previous Next
Enlarge
Shinseki's situation is not helped by the fact that the Democrats, Mark Udall of Colorado and John Walsh of Montana, have tough re-election fights as Democrats strain to keep their Senate majority. They were joined by Arizona's Republican senators, Jeff Flake and the influential John McCain.
"Shinseki is a good man who has served his country honorably but he has failed to get VA's health care system in order despite repeated and frequent warnings from Congress," said Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate's veterans panel, called the findings "unacceptable." But the Brooklyn native, who has decried a "rush to judgment" on the VA situation by colleagues and the media, didn't call for Shinseki to step down.
ON A MOBILE DEVICE? CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.
via Smart Health Shop Forum http://ift.tt/1iuf8MI
No comments:
Post a Comment