Some VA centers miss wait-time targets

The majority of Veterans Affairs medical facilities in Washington are meeting timeliness goals for scheduling doctor visits, but centers in Walla Walla, Vancouver and Chehalis have yet to hit their targets.

At the VA hospital in Walla Walla, the worst of the three, 4.6 percent of completed appointments were subject to delays of at least 31 days from Sept. 1 to Feb. 28, according to VA data reviewed by the Associated Press.

At the other 11 VA facilities in the state, fewer than 2.4 percent of appointments were delayed.

The AP examined waiting times at 940 VA hospitals and outpatient clinics throughout the nation to see how things might have improved since a scandal over delays and attempts to cover them up led to the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and prompted lawmakers in August to pass the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act.

The delays in Walla Walla, Vancouver and Chehalis were higher than the national average of 2.8 percent, and in spite of calls for reform and congressional action, the percentage of patients waiting at least a month for care at the two medical centers got worse between September and February, the analysis found.

Brian Westfield, director of the Walla Walla medical center, said there were no obvious reasons for the wait times there. “We have no significant vacancies,” Westfield said of his workforce.

The Walla Walla hospital serves a rural, 17-county region of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, Westfield said. The service area has about 72,000 veterans, and long drives to receive care might explain some delays.

The AP found 4.6 percent of the roughly 26,000 appointments completed at Walla Walla between September and February required waits of at least a month. Care was delayed more than 90 days in 48 instances.

Also, the VA medical center in Spokane reported 240 appointments that were delayed more than 90 days – easily the largest number of people at one facility in the state who waited that long.