A recent AP study found the Ann Arbor VA’s ratings for appointments has ranked lower than the VA located in Detroit. In fact it rated last of all hospitals in Michigan.
Despite its poor performance, the Ann Arbor VA has improved its wait times in the last year and beats national averages for wait times.
Ann Arbor hospitals provide world class services, no doubt the University of Michigan Health System has something to do with that.
It is surprising to see the VA lag behind. Hopes are that it continues its rise to match its counterparts in the area.
What is troubling for many is that Ann Arbor serves a great deal of patients due to its location in Washtenaw county and access from outlying counties. Many individuals do not have to time or resources to make trips to Detroit for medical treatment.
More on the survey from MLive:
The Ann Arbor VA and John Dingell VA in Detroit stood on opposite ends of the rankings in a recent Associated Press study of wait times at Veterans Affairs hospitals.
Only 0.91 percent of appointments at the Dingell VA were scheduled with more than 30-day wait times between Sept. 1, 2014 and Feb. 28, 2015–the 15th best rate in the country for VA Medical Centers (VAMC). Wait times at the Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System exceeded 30 days for 3.39 percent of appointments, the highest rate for a Michigan VAMC.
John Dingell VA Public Affairs Officer Alysse Mengason said patient access, and especially short wait times, were emphasized at the hospital long before they became a national issue.
“It’s a priority for all of us,” she said. “I’m not a clinician or a scheduler, but I know it’s important. Form our patient advocates to our telephone operators to our doctors to everyone else, we all know that it’s a priority.”
Michigan as a whole performed well compared to national averages, where the AP found disturbing trends, including a lack of improvement on 30-day wait times and a near doubling of the amount of patients who have to wait more than 90 days.
Reports emerged in the summer of 2014 detailing widespread scheduling mismanagement in the VA system, including the death of 40 veterans waiting to receive car at a VA facility in Phoenix. The Ann Arbor VA center was one of 112 VA sites flagged for further scrutiny during the review.
Despite finishing last among Michigan medical centers, the Ann Arbor hospital has improved its scheduling since last summer and now beats national averages for wait times of greater than 60 and 90 days.
MLive.com: http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/04/detroit_va_hospital_tops_in_mi.html
