Average
appointment wait times went down from 22.5 days to 17.7 days at the VA,
research shows.
By Sara Heath
January 25,
2019 - Appointment wait times at the Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) are getting better, despite a negative public reputation to the contrary,
according to new data published in
the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The study, which was
conducted by VA researchers using data from 2014 and 2017, compared appointment
wait times in VA facilities and the private sector (PS) in 15 major
metropolitan areas. The researchers looked at wait times for primary care,
dermatology, cardiology, and orthopedic settings.
Appointment wait
times are an important indicator of a positive patient experience, the
researchers noted. Research confirms
that long appointment wait times are a drain on patient satisfaction.
Additionally, long wait times can cause delayed access to necessary clinical
care.
VA has a long history
of long appointment wait times, the VA researchers acknowledged, but has since
implemented new strategies to close the gap between VA and PS wait time
averages.
In 2014, wait times
in VA facilities averaged at 22.5 days, compared to 18.7 days for private
sector providers, a difference VA suggested is negligible. By 2017, average VA
wait times were 17.7 days. In private clinics, wait times increased to 29.8
days.
“Since 2014, VA has
made a concerted, transparent effort to improve access to care,” VA Secretary
Robert Wilkie said in a statement. “This
study affirms that VA has made notable progress in improving access in primary
care, and other key specialty care areas.”
These wait time
improvements happened in primary care, dermatology, and cardiology settings. In
orthopedic settings, wait times continued to cause issue, the researchers
found.
Wait times in
orthopedic settings remained shorter in private settings than in the VA in both
2014 and 2017. However, during that time period VA did reduce wait times by 5.4
days; the private sector remained static.
What’s more, VA has
seen an increase in the number of patients it sees, up to 5.1 million patients
by 2017, the agency said.
“Concurrently, there
was an increase in the number of unique patients seen, volume of encounters,
and an improvement in CAHPS access score ratings within the VA, further
supporting the finding that access to care has improved over time within the
VA,” the researchers wrote.
The VA researchers
acknowledged that further analysis is necessary to understand appointment wait
times and patient access in other setting types.
“An analysis of
access to mental health services and of access in rural areas in the VA and PS
would be useful to pursue in further research,” the researchers explained.
“Although the results reflect positively on the VA, we intend to continue
improving wait times, the accuracy of the data captured, and the transparency
of reporting information to veterans and the public.”
All of this comes as
VA handled a care access and wait time PR crisis that occurred in 2014.
“In 2014, reports
indicated that veterans were waiting too long for care and that scheduling data
may have been manipulated at a United States Department of Veterans Affairs
(VA) facility in Phoenix, Arizona,” the researchers recounted. “This
incident damaged the VA’s credibility and created a public perception regarding
the VA health care system’s inability to see patients in a timely
manner. In response, the VA has worked to improve access, including
primary care, mental health, and other specialty care services.”
Since then, VA said
it has implemented many patient-centered care access strategies, such as the
Veterans Choice program, online appointment scheduling,
and other tools to make it easier for patients to access treatment in a
reasonable timeframe.
To help target
further efforts, the healthcare industry must pinpoint what is an acceptable
patient wait time, the researchers concluded. In doing so, VA and other
healthcare facilities will have a benchmark by which to measure its patient
care access successes or shortcomings.
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