Buffalo VA Medical Center
New York Congressional representatives have announced a nationwide review to identify and investigate systemic issues within the VA’s community care practices.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Representatives Nick Langworthy and Tim Kennedy called for the review after failures at the Buffalo VA left veterans waiting weeks or months to receive care.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will be conducting a comprehensive review of the VA’s community care consult practices that will include a review of the practices around scheduling patient treatment, particularly for high-risk and complex conditions. It will also review practices around handling concerns raised by patients and health care providers in the case of delayed treatment.
According to a report from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, critically ill patients at the Buffalo VA had their treatments postponed for months or even canceled entirely, despite concerns raised by patients and health care providers. In one case, a patient waited nine weeks for radiation therapy for a new cancer malignancy, despite efforts by the chief of oncology to get the community care team to schedule treatment. In another, a veteran died waiting for palliative radiation therapy that would have eased severe pain from stage 4 cancer. Following the revelations of the report the lawmakers requested an independent investigation by the GAO into the VA community care practices.
Specifically, the GAO review will include:
– Oversight of medical centers’ adherence to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) requirements for processing consults for conditions considered high-risk or complex;
– Whether consults are appropriately prioritized and consistently processed within VHA’s timeliness requirements;
– Reviewing how medical facilities, VISN leaders, and the VHA Office of Integrated Veteran Care respond to concerns regarding delays in consult scheduling from providers, staff, patients, and their families and how this is built into VHA’s quality and risk management programs;
– Best practices to prevent and address leadership deficiencies within the community care scheduling process, including the prioritization of patient safety.
I was forced to wait weeks to have my mother transferred from the VA in Hawaii to the VA in Buffalo. It took so long my mother eventually passed in the Va in Hawaii.