An audit of VA hospitals and clinics nationwide has found that nearly 275 Indiana patients are still waiting for initial appointments at facilities in Indiana 90 days or more after requesting them. The audit also found that more than 230 others in Indiana who enrolled in the VA health care system over the past 10 years have never received appointments. Auditors found that the agency’s complicated appointment process created confusion among schedulers and supervisors and that a 14-day goal for seeing first-time patients was unattainable. The VA has abandoned that goal. Nationally, more than 57,000 patients are still waiting for initial medical appointments after 90 days, and an additional 64,000 who enrolled in the VA health care system in the last decade have never been seen.
