In a scathing appraisal, a review ordered by President Barack Obama of the troubled Veterans Affairs health care system concludes that medical care for veterans is beset by “significant and chronic system failures,” substantially verifying problems raised by whistleblowers and investigators.
A summary of the review by deputy White House chief of staff Rob Nabors said that the Veterans Health Administration must be restructured and that a “corrosive culture” has hurt morale and affected the timeliness of health care.
The review also found that a 14-day standard for scheduling veterans’ medical appointments is unrealistic and that some employees manipulated the wait times so they would appear to be shorter.
The review is the latest blistering assessment of the VA in the wake of reports of patients dying while waiting for appointments and of treatment delays in VA facilities nationwide. The White House released a summary of the review following President Barack Obama’s meeting Friday with Nabors and Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson.
The review offers a series of recommendations, including a need for more doctors, nurses and trained administrative staff. Those recommendations are likely to face skepticism among some congressional Republicans who have blamed the VA’s problems on mismanagement, not lack of resources.
The White House released the summary after Obama returned from a two-day trip to Minneapolis and promptly ducked into an Oval Office to get an update on the administration’s response to the VA troubles from Gibson and Nabors.
“We know that unacceptable, systemic problems and cultural issues within our health system prevent veterans from receiving timely care,” Gibson said in a statement following the meeting. “We can and must solve these problems as we work to earn back the trust of veterans.”
The review contains a searing critique of the Veterans Health Administration, the VA agency responsible for medical care. Earlier this week, the VA announced that Dr. Robert L. Jesse, who has been acting undersecretary for health and head of the VHA, was resigning. Jesse had been acting undersecretary for health since May 16, when Robert Petzel resigned under pressure months before he was set to retire.
Nabors’ report found that the VHA, the country’s biggest health care system, acts with little transparency or accountability and that many recommendations to improve care are slowly implemented or ignored. The VHA serves nearly 8.8 million veterans a year in more than 1,700 health care sites. But the report said concerns raised by the public, monitors or even VA leadership have been dismissed at the VHA as “exaggerated, unimportant, or ‘will pass.’”
Among Nabors’ other findings:
— As of June 23, the independent Office of Special Counsel, a government investigative arm, had more than 50 pending cases that allege threats to patient health or safety.
— One-fourth of all the whistleblower cases under review across the federal government come from the VA. The department “encourages discontent and backlash against employees.”
— The VA needs to better prepare for changes in the demographic profile of veterans, including more female veterans, a surge in mental health needs and a growing number of older veterans.
The White House said that over the past month, the VA has contacted 135,000 veterans and scheduled about 182,000 additional appointments. It has also used more mobile medical units to attend to veterans awaiting care.
Since reports surfaced of treatment delays and of patients dying while on waiting lists, the VA has been the subject of internal, independent and congressional investigations. The VA has confirmed that dozens of veterans died while awaiting appointments at VA facilities in the Phoenix area, although officials say it’s unclear whether the delays were the cause of the deaths.
