Letting vets down: VA backslides on wait times, employee fraud

The agency charged with caring for America's veterans has been backsliding in performance after making improvements from a scandal a decade ago, as patient wait times grow and numerous of its employees are caught swindling taxpayers or fudging statistics.

While inspections of individual medical centers showed some improvements in patient care, the inspector general still uncovered examples of egregious and deadly care of patients.

The VA hospital in Augusta, Ga. failed to detect the declining condition of a veteran after surgery, including malnutrition and alcohol withdrawal, before he died recently "Prior to the patient's surgery, primary care staff failed to provide sufficient care coordination and treatment," the report said.

"A provider failed to address the patient's abnormal chest images and poor nutrition, and failed to communicate test results to the patient as required."A primary care nurse failed to respond to the patient's secure message request for assistance two days before surgery.

" Members of Congress also are increasingly worried that patient wait times - the issue at the heart of the Obama-era scandal that started in Phoenix in 2014- are creeping back up, particularly for new patients.

A website created by the VA to monitor patient service shows new patient wait times of 48 days at the Atlanta VA clinic, 88 days, at the Covington, Ga., facility, 25 to 50 days in the Phoenix area, 47 days at Scottsdale, Ariz., 66 days in Victorville, Calif., and 70 days in Valley Stream, N.Y. To make matters even worse, some VA facilities are fudging wait times by failing to use the required calculations, an inspector general report revealed last month.

Cover Image ART19 John Solomon Reports AG Morrisey wins big against major opioid manufacturersAG Morrisey wins big against major opioid manufacturers Share Subscribe Amazon Music Apple Podcasts Stitcher RSS Download Description 00:00 / 01:01:14 Listen on Listen on Apple Podcast Listen on Stitcher The repeated failures inside the VA institutions have some candidates in the fall election running on plans to further privatize veterans' health care, allowing patients to skip clunky federal bureaucracies when they want.
 

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