VA official to clinics: Stop gaming the system

[unhappycamper]

VA official to clinics: Stop gaming the system
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jul 12, 2010 13:38:45 EDT

After years of complaints from veterans who say they aren’t getting VA medical appointments within 30 days even if Veterans Affairs Department records show they are, a top VA official sent out a memo asking employees to quit “gaming” the system.

“It has come to my attention that, in order to improve scores on assorted access measures, certain facilities have adopted use of inappropriate scheduling practices sometimes referred to as ‘gaming strategies,’ ” wrote William Schoenhard, VA’s deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management, in the April 26 memo.

The “gaming” came after VA required its employees to ensure patients were given initial appointments within 30 days of entering the VA system. Instead, several clinics came up with ways to make it look as if the veterans had canceled their appointments or hadn’t asked for one until within 30 days of when the appointment was made.

“As we strive to improve access to our veterans, we must ensure in fact that improvement does not focus or rely on workarounds,” Schoenhard wrote. “Workarounds may mask the symptoms of poor access and, although they may aid in meeting performance measures, they do not serve our veterans.”

The memo, first reported by Larry Scott of VAWatchdog.org, comes in the wake of exceptional gains in reducing appointment waiting times announced by VA officials.

[izquierdista]

1. But that's all we know how to do!

Game the mortgage process so no-income, no-job people can get a loan with no down. Game the drilling permit process so one "spill plan" covers all the bases. Game the food labeling process so that rat turds are "inert ingredients". Game the health insurance process so that aging is a "pre-existing condition".

Is it any surprise that creative people under bureaucratic pressure come up with "workarounds"?

[Brickbat]

2. It makes me so angry for so many reasons -- but when I read this shit, I wonder why these people

still have jobs instead of getting chastised by a harsh memo.

[UTUSN]

3. So *that's* what they did with me.

First, they had one of their p.r. events where they wanted to enroll as many vets as they could, telling the cameras they needed "numbers" to get D.C. to pay attention. Fine, so I fell for it (filling out a form).

No further contact with, from, or to them. One fine day (within a month) one of them called saying that I had not shown up for an appointment the previous day. I said I never knew of any appointment. She said I had gotten an appointment letter, so, that if I wasn't going to show up for appointments, did I want her to go ahead and disenroll me?

I was taken aback by the whole episode so I said that, yes, disenroll. So it's all a cynical scheme.

What's shitty in the vast scheme of things is that probably near-100% of the VA's employees are veterans themselves: Screwing fellow veterans.

[formercia]

4. Gear adrift.

That's where the slackers go to die.