The Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general has said its investigators on-site at the Phoenix HCS as well as its hotline have received numerous complaints about mid and lower level managers as it conducts its review of appointment wait times – an investigation that has widened to encompass the entire network and led to the resignation of secretary Eric Shinseki.
In an interim report the IG said it substantiated that significant delays in access to care negatively impacted the quality care at the Phoenix facility, and it said it discovered multiple types of scheduling practices that are not in compliance with VHA policy. It has not yet reported whether any delay in scheduling a primary care appointment resulted in a delay in diagnosis or treatment, particularly for those veterans who died while on a waiting list. Nonetheless the fallout is widening and Congress is poised to make it easier to fire or demote senior executives at the department among other steps.
Complaints have included numerous allegations daily of mismanagement, inappropriate hiring decisions, sexual harassment, and bullying behavior by mid-and senior-level managers at the facility, according to the IG.
It said it was assessing the validity of those complaints, and if true, the impact to the facility’s senior leadership’s ability to make effective improvements to patients’ access to care.
