NEW YORK — Data released by Veterans Affairs officials this week appeared to confirm that new patients at the agency’s medical centers were routinely waiting 30, 50 or even more than 90 days to see a doctor.
Those statistics came with some big caveats.
Average wait times at many of the facilities are likely much shorter, Philip Matkovsky, an assistant deputy undersecretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, told The Associated Press on Friday.
He said information about patients who received care very quickly was left out of the analysis for technical reasons.
“They are valid numbers,” he said of audit results issued Monday, but acknowledged that the exclusion of those receiving swift care and other factors led to longer average reported wait times for some facilities than actually experienced by veterans.
One reason for the disparity is that the audit essentially represented a look into future doctor visits, while another VA data system assessed wait times by looking at the past, Matkovsky said.
The bottom line, though, he added, remains unchanged: Many veterans are still waiting too long for care.
“Nobody should wait 90 days for an appointment from when they want to be seen,” he said.
Meanwhile, a private watchdog organization investigating the VA problems defied a federal subpoena Friday to turn over to the Obama administration materials it received from federal whistleblowers.
The directive ordered the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight to surrender copies of all records and identifying information from federal employees or others who submitted complaints about the VA, which they believed would remain anonymous. POGO said the material was digitally encrypted when the group received it.
POGO, which discloses government misconduct and advocates for whistleblower protections, had set up a secure website, , to solicit complaints from insiders about fraud, waste or abuse inside the Veterans Affairs Department.
Since Monday’s release of average wait time data by VA headquarters officials in Washington, administrators at local VA medical centers have been questioning the announced audit results, saying they didn’t jibe with internal data showing far shorter waits. The complaints have come not only from places that fared the worst in the audit, but also from hospitals that ranked in the middle or did relatively well.
