Yesterday, VA Hospitals’ Inspector General released an interim investigative report on patient wait times.
Here are the headline findings …
According to the WSJ: “In 2011, the VA revamped its targets for the time patients must wait to be seen, setting a target for 14 days between when a patient requests an appointment and when that patient is seen.”
The IG found that only 14% of patients were being seen within the 14-day performance standard.
More broadly, the hospitals have been reporting average wait times of 24 days for appointments … a 70% miss against the performance metric.
That’s bad enough, but …
The IG found patient wait times were actually some three months longer, averaging 115 days.
That’s almost 4 months !
Think about that.
How would you feel if you had to wait 4 months to get an appointment to see a doctor?
Based on a personal experience of mine, you might want to get used to the feeling.
Last year I needed to see an eye surgeon … I got an appointment “any day next week”.
This year I called for appointment … same doctor.
Answer: “First available appoint is in 8 weeks … want it?”
Just an early glimpse of government-run healthcare
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