Has progress been made at El Paso’s VA?
el paso’s v-a was ranked as one of the worst in the country and in texas – based on its wait times… today- evan folan spoke with the director of el paso’s v-a as well some veterans to see if any progress has been made. 16 – 28 and 48 to 59 “tell me about your history wit the va? ugh, my history with the va has been terrible.” last year the department of veteran affairs released a national audit – revealing that el paso’s va was among the wost in the state and even the entire country when it came to wait times… “when we talk about wait times we are not talking about emergent or urgent needs a veteran may have.” “veterans tha have emergent or urgent medical needs those are triaged and taken care of immediatley.” from th beginning of the year to july the numbers improved… the overall percentage of appointments completed in 30 days or less went from 92 percent to 94 percent … however the primary care and specialty wait time went up two days… while the wait time for mental health stayed about the same. their solution: “:if you know from that day i it is over 30 days then you immediatley work with the veteran the clinician to see if they want to wait for the service for the va” but after reviewing the records from july to august – the wait times show a different trend from the beginning of the year “we live by the ol saying those who serve deserve but in the case of the va those who serve wait.. its that simple.” that seems to be the trend after reviewing the numbers from this july to august of this year… the percentage of appointments completed in 30 days or less went from 94% to 87% meaning 12% of the appointments in august took more than 30 days to complete. the average wait times for primary care went up 3 days specialty care’s wait time went up 5 days and the mental health wait time went up a day. “how bad does it have to get for the va to change?” although numbers are down the director has a message for all veterans… ” would tell them they deserve the care when and where they need the care and we are making every effort to bring care closer to them.” el paso’s va has made several changes to address those wait times such by increasing staff levels and adding alternative methods to contact veterans and provide help. developing now… one man is dead and two men are wounded in a shooting near a college campus in california. the shooting happened near the baseball field at sacramento city college. police say three
