U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz wants an investigation into allegations that staff members at the delay-plagued U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Hawaii were ordered to "cook the books" regarding patients’ appointments.
In his June 4 letter to Richard J. Griffin, the department’s acting inspector general, Schatz said he also heard — although admittedly secondhand — information from VA doctors and nurses that the chief administrator at the Spark M. Matsunaga VA Medical Center "asked staff to wipe their computers clean regarding patient wait times."
"I request that you investigate these allegations as part of your nationwide review of misconduct at VA hospitals," Schatz wrote in his letter to Griffin. "We owe it to the 117,000 veterans living in Hawaii, many of whom are rural veterans on the neighbor islands who are already struggling to access routine care."
Representatives for Griffin’s office could not be reached after hours in Washington on Thursday.
Schatz’s letter is the latest in a series of calls for further scrutiny of the Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Health Care System following allegations of mismanagement and misconduct at VA facilities around the country. But Schatz is the first of Hawaii’s congressional representatives to suggest new allegations of purposeful manipulation of patient wait times in Hawaii.
His letter also follows a breakdown of trust between the Department of Veterans Affairs Pacific Island Health Care System and Hawaii’s congresswomen and U.S. senators.
During a June 5 briefing led by Wayne Pfeffer, director of the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System, members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation said their staff members were misled to believe that veterans had to wait only about 30 days for their first appointment with a primary care physician.
Then, just four days later, a nationwide audit by the Veterans Affairs Department revealed that military veterans in Hawaii actually had to wait an average of 145 days to see a primary care physician for the first time — the worst delay by far in the entire VA system.
Pfeffer wrote Thursday in an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, "It has been continually emphasized that our employees continue to document our veteran needs in an appropriate and timely manner. I am not aware that anyone has violated those principles. It is our desire to ensure our veterans are seen commensurate with their healthcare needs. Our lengthy wait times though regrettable show we are recording wait times in our health care system. We continue to seek ways to reduce wait times locally, while providing quality health care to each veteran."
One person wrote to Schatz that orders were given "to erase the lists in the computer so their records would look good and they would receive their bonuses."
Another wrote, "I learned about lower level and mid-management personnel being told to ‘cook the books.’ Recently, I have learned that many nurses and doctors have resigned. But more importantly, I have learned that (redacted) asked staff to wipe out their computers regarding waiting patients."
In an interview Thursday with the Star-Advertiser, Schatz called the allegations of patient wait time manipulation in Hawaii "really serious."
"There is a range of allegations, and all of them are deeply concerning," he said. "It’s not at all clear that they’re doing an adequate job of policing themselves, and these allegations are coming in from different sources in the community and merit further investigation. They’ve got to come clean, and they’ve got to do it very quickly in order for there to be a chance of rebuilding trust."
More important, Schatz said, VA leaders in Hawaii have a long way to go regaining the trust of military veterans in Hawaii.
"Our veterans aren’t getting the care that they need, and the administrators locally have been evasive and less than forthright in telling us what exactly what is going on,"Schatz said. "Veterans don’t have the luxury of shading the truth or manipulating the numbers when it comes to their wait time. This is their heath care that we’re talking about."
