An internal audit of nationwide access to Department of Veterans Affairs health-care facilities called for numerous direct actions to speed up the languishing process. The audit comes in the aftermath of the ongoing scandal that rocked the agency, which implicated VA staffs in Phoenix and several other cities across the country with falsifying data on wait times veterans must endure before receiving treatment to which they are entitled. At least 40 veterans in Phoenix are said to have died as a result, with scores if not hundreds more possible altogether. Among the audit’s recommendations.
* Establishment of a new patient satisfaction measurement program;
* Accountability for senior VA leaders.
* Imposition of a hiring freeze at the Veterans Health Administration Central Office and the Veterans Integrated Service Networks Office.
* Removal of the 14-day scheduling goal from employee performance contracts, to eliminate any possible incentive to foster false record keeping.
* Posting of access data twice monthly, to increase transparency.
* Dispatching a front-line team to Phoenix, to address shortfalls there.
* Using high-performance facilities to assist those that heed improvement.
