VA Official Acknowledges Link Delays in Care and Deaths
For those who may have missed the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee (HVAC) hearing yesterday, Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) officials testified before HVAC and admitted they failed to review records of 5,600 veterans who were on waiting lists for appointments, which might have resulted in additional patients deaths.
This was in stark contrast to the report the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released last month that argued delayed care had not conclusively caused patient fatalities.
Last week, the Washington Examiner reported the “crucial language that the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general could not ‘conclusively’ prove that delays in care caused patient deaths at a Phoenix hospital was added to its final report after a draft version was sent to agency administrators for comment…”
Rep. Jackie Walorski (IN-02) yesterday asked Assistant Inspector General for Healthcare Inspections at the VA, Dr. John D. Daigh, how the VA could conclusively determine there was no link between patient deaths if they failed to review all patient records. Watch the exchange here.