Under attack for long wait times and mediocre care, Atlanta VA Medical Center officials made the case Friday that the facility is improving both access to treatment and quality of care.
Director Leslie Wiggins pointed to newly compiled figures that show veterans are getting appointments quicker and receiving better care for conditions such as pneumonia, congestive heart failure and hospital-acquired infections.
The figures, which were for the months January through March, showed improvement over the previous quarter on 20 of 27 measures tracked by the VA’s performance improvement system.
“We’re not perfect, but we’re continuously improving,” said Wiggins during a press conference. “Things are improving every day.”
At the same time, there was no change in the hospital’s overall quality ranking among VA facilities when compared to similar data from 2011. The Decatur facility rates two stars out of a possible five, placing it in the bottom third of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs’ 128 acute care and surgery facilities.
Sunday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in depth on the hospital's standing and its struggle to climb out of the lower rungs of the VA's ranking system.
Friday, even as VA officials went through a PowerPoint presentation before numerous media representatives, some patients said any improvements they have noticed have been modest.
“It’s better. I was able to get an appointment in two months,” said Andy Johnson III, a Vietnam vet with post traumatic stress disorder. He had waited far longer in the past, he said, but “two months is still a long time.”
Problems at the Atlanta VA have stood front and center in a national scandal over over long wait times at VA medical centers. The local center has had among the longest waits for new patients in the country.
The hospital is one of five VA facilities in Georgia flagged for investigation following a national audit that identified long wait times and possible records tampering at VA hospitals and clinics across the country.
On Friday, Chief of Staff Dr. David Bower said the Atlanta VA has reduced wait times in several areas by expanding access at clinics.
Kaye Coker, who heads the nonprofit service group Veterans Heart Georgia, said she’s heard less complaining from vets lately about the VA, which she takes as a good sign. She still worries about such fundamental problems as getting through over the phone, a measurement for which the facility continues to rank among the worst in the country.
Hospital officials say they’ve added 15 more positions to the call center to reduce the time it takes to answer calls.
The general trend of improvement heartened Coker.
“I hope it trickles down to the veterans and they get quicker appointments and better health care,” she said.
Still, the rankings presented at the news conference showed Atlanta losing ground on primary care wait times when compared to other VA facilities.
But in other significant areas, measures moved in a positive direction. The hospital’s 30-day death rate for pneumonia rose from the bottom 20 percent of facilities to the next 20 percent. It’s 30-day death rate for congestive heart failure rose from the second 20 percent into the third 20 percent.
Officials said the better rankings are more than a blip, that several measures have shown consistent improvement over 12 months.
For all the improvement cited, the hospital remained in the bottom 40 percent of VA facilities for almost half of the categories measured.
Wiggins emphasized, however, that the hospital system stacked up well when compared to hospitals outside the veterans system.
She would have a hard time convincing Maurice Hicks, whose wife, Sharon, came into the hospital emergency room Sunday for problems with an implant used for her dialysis. She is still awaiting surgery, he said.
“I’m trying to encourage her to stay strong,” he said.
Hicks, himself an Army vet, said he just got an appointment to treat his glaucoma. He showed an appointment card that said he must wait until November.
“They’re playing with veterans’ lives,” he said. “I served faithfully. I want respect.”
Nationally, the VA has been scrambling to right itself. A new director, Robert McDonald, a West Point graduate who went on to lead Procter & Gamble, recently took the helm.
Thursday, President Barack Obama signed a bill providing the agency $16.3 billion in emergency funds. The measure, passed only after weeks of partisan wrangling, will enable the agency to hire more doctors and nurses. It also makes it easier to fire top VA executives if they fail to perform.
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