United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-05-31 monographic deposited born digital 30 p. GA 1.13:HEHS-00-90 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-90 P0b002ee180397868 f:he00090 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-90 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-90 HEHS-00-90 Veterans benefits Patient care services Statistical data Health services administration Veterans Data collection Health resources utilization Data integrity VA Veterans Integrated Service Network Letter Report HEHS Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Veterans Affairs'(VA) efforts to reduce the waiting times for outpatient care, focusing on VA's initiatives to: (1) improve its waiting time; and (2) address its waiting time problems.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) although VA has begun to collect data systematically on waiting times for outpatient care, it has yet to develop reliable national waiting time data; (2) over the past 10 months, VA has initiated two separate efforts for gathering comprehensive outpatient waiting time data from its facilities; (3) the first effort, initiated in June 1999, produced data that were incomplete and inaccurate, in part because of the differences in facilities' scheduling of appointments; (4) VA's second effort, initiated in December 1999, was designed to improve the data's reliability by measuring the average time taken to schedule an appointment for an entire month; (5) VA officials believe that the new method is significantly better and should provide VA with more complete and accurate data; (6) to ensure this, however, VA will need to overcome some problems identified during implementation, such as inaccurate appointment codes being entered into the system; (7) in addition to taking steps to improve its waiting time data, VA has initiated actions to reduce the time veterans must wait for outpatient appointments; (8) VA hired a private contractor to develop and implement techniques to reduce waiting times at selected clinics in VA facilities nationwide; (9) in addition, VA plans to spend $400 million in fiscal year 2001 to make improvements in the timeliness of service, patient access to telephone care, and timely access to clinical information; (10) however, VA's lack of reliable national waiting time data raises concerns about whether VA has an adequate basis upon which to design these initiatives; (11) specifically, without accurate data on the extent of waiting time problems and analyses of the causes of long waits, VA cannot assess whether its proposed expenditures would reduce waiting times or determine how best to allocate funds to reduce waiting times; and (12) without, reliable baseline waiting time data and a mechanism to track the funds used to improve timeliness of care, VA will not be able to objectively measure whether these funds have actually resulted in reduced waiting times. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-90/html/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-90.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-90/pdf/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-90.pdf GAO/HEHS-00-90 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-HEHS-00-90 Letter Report GAO/HEHS-00-90; Veterans' Health Care: VA Needs Better Data on Extent and; Veterans benefits Patient care services Statistical data Health services administration Veterans Data collection Health resources utilization Data integrity VA Veterans Integrated Service Network