The two-year investigation looked into concerns that the North Texas VA hospital had ordered employees to destroy scheduling records and had quieted whistleblowers, according to the report. The investigation found no evidence that records had been destroyed or that the wait times were manipulated to appear to meet VA standards.
VA North Texas Assistant Director Eric Jacobsen told D Healthcare Daily that nearly all veterans in the Dallas area can see the physician within a 30 day window of their desired appointment time. If they cannot be seen in this window, they are seen at outside facilities, according to the report.
The North Texas system was cited for not having updated training presentations, which “may have led some schedulers to schedule patient appointments incorrectly, by using next available date or by using the appointment date as the patient’s desired date,” the OIG stated, according to the report.
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