Trump Lets Va Hospitals Have Bibles Again

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation, delay or rescheduling of almost twenty 1000000 medical appointments for veterans.

Part of that is a effect of many Veterans Affairs medical facilities being fully or partially shut downwards because of the pandemic. Only that'southward only one-half the story.

For those who tin't become care at a VA facility, community intendance under the VA MISSION Human activity should be an alternative. It isn't working out that way.

The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation wrote to VA Secretarial assistant Denis McDonough last month to protestation "reports of veterans existence asked to travel to Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island for appointments, including a veteran with Multiple Sclerosis who had to drive 210 miles round trip in a blizzard to an appointment in Connecticut."

The cancellation and delay of appointments is unacceptable

The VA Office of Inspector General determined that of the 7.three million appointments canceled from March 15 through May 1, nearly a third (2.3 1000000) had no indication of follow-up or tracking at the time of the review.

This is unacceptable. As we learned from the 2014 Phoenix VA Medical Center look-time scandal, delayed wellness care and long look times can kill veterans every bit surely every bit an improvised explosive device.

How bad is it this time around?

Shocking every bit information technology might seem, we have no style of knowing what the real wait times are at VA facilities because the VA has not reported relevant information for nigh two years, since implementation of the Community Intendance Program created by the VA MISSION Act began on June half-dozen, 2019.

That'due south because the VA is all the same using metrics established under the old Veterans Option Program rather than those created for Customs Intendance, which requires an appointment within 20 days of the engagement of asking for primary care, mental health care and noninstitutional extended care services, or 28 days of the engagement of asking for specialty care.

Simply while nosotros might not have reliable information on wait times at VA facilities, we do know how poorly a chore VA is doing scheduling community care.

"Co-ordinate to VA internal data from October 2019 through June 2020, veterans waited an average of 41.9 days for an appointment in the customs, starting from the fourth dimension he or she requested the engagement to the time the coming together occurred," Federal News Network reported last autumn.

COVID-19:Vaccines save lives. Get one even if life isn't back to normal overnight.

Information technology all adds up to another wait-time scandal waiting to happen. Afterwards inheriting this problem from the previous administration, that'due south surely not how Secretary McDonough wants to begin his tenure.

Secretary McDonough needs to fix the problem at present

He needs to go a handle on the situation now. The first step is for the VA to finally report meaningful look times based on the metrics provided by the MISSION Human action Customs Care regulation. Only and then volition nosotros know how bad the situation is.

VA then needs to develop and implement a plan to follow upwards and track every veteran who gets an date at a VA facility or in the customs in accordance with the access standards, in line with Secretary McDonough's assurances.

"I promise to fight — every unmarried day — to ensure that our veterans take the access to earth-class, compassionate intendance they have earned," Secretary McDonough said at his confirmation hearing.

Nurse:I'k correcting COVID conspiracy theories inside and outside the wellness care industry

Since COVID-19 striking a twelvemonth ago, veterans have not been getting timely admission to the world-class care nosotros deserve. Nosotros urge the new secretarial assistant to mind the words of his distinguished predecessor, Gen. Omar Bradley, "Nosotros are dealing with (veterans), non procedures; with their issues, not ours."

Darin Selnick is a senior adviser for Concerned Veterans for America and an Air Force veteran. He served as veterans' affairs adviser on President Donald Trump's Domestic Policy Council and as a senior adviser to the VA secretary.

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/03/05/veterans-affairs-wait-time-medical-appointment-trump-mcdonough-column/6820715002/

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