NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Veterans Affairs officials blame staffing shortages for long wait times at several of the state’s rural and small-town clinics.
The VA’s timeliness standard calls for patients to wait no longer than 30 days for non-emergency care. According to figures released by the VA for September through February, about 11 percent of appointments at the Dover clinic were delayed at least 31 days.
VA spokeswoman Jessica Schiefer blamed the delays on a shortage of medical providers and said officials were working to add staff.
The national average was a little less than 3 percent.
At the Hopkinsville Veterans Affairs Clinic, nearly one in five patient visits from last September through February involved a delay of at least a month.
According to government data reviewed by The Associated Press, nearly 5,380 medical appointments were completed at the Hopkinsville VA clinic during that time. Statistics show 19.6 percent of them failed to meet the health system’s timeliness goal, which calls for patients to be seen within 30 days.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press