[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 214 (Wednesday, November 5, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65771-65773]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-26274]
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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Publication of Wait-Times for the Department for the Veterans
Choice Program
AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014
directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to publish wait times
for the scheduling of appointments in each VA facility for primary
care, specialty care, and hospital care and medical services. This
Federal Register Notice announces VA's publication of the wait times.
ADDRESSES: The wait-time data for all Veterans Health Administration
(VHA) medical centers and clinics is available on the following Web
site: http://www.va.gov/health/access-audit.asp.
[[Page 65772]]
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Kristin J. Cunningham, Director,
Business Policy (10NB6), Chief Business Office, Veterans Health
Administration, 810 Vermont Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20420,
Telephone: (202) 382-2508. (This is not a toll-free number.)
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 206 of the Veterans Access, Choice,
and Accountability Act of 2014 (Pub. L. 113-146, ``the Act'') directs
the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), not later than 90 days after
the date of the enactment of the Act, to publish in the Federal
Register, and on a publicly-accessible Internet Web site of each VA
Medical Center, the wait-times for the scheduling of an appointment in
each VA facility by a veteran for the receipt of primary care,
specialty care, and hospital care and medical services based on the
general severity of the condition of the veteran. Whenever the wait-
times for the scheduling of such an appointment change, the Secretary
is also required to publish the revised wait times on a publicly-
accessible Internet Web site of each VA Medical Center not later than
30 days after such change, and in the Federal Register not later than
90 days after such change.
This Federal Register Notice announces the publication of the wait-
times of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for primary care,
specialty care, and mental health care as required by section 206 of
the Act. VA is working to develop an accurate method for tracking and
reporting wait times for hospital care and medical services and will
begin reporting that data as soon as it is available.
This data release contains a new method of reporting. The previous
method calculated wait time based on the create date (the date an
appointment is made) and based on the desired date for scheduling an
appointment. The previous method also reported data separately for new
and established patients. The current method uses the date that an
appointment is deemed clinically appropriate by a VA health care
provider, or if no such clinical determination has been made, the date
a veteran prefers to be seen, to calculate wait times and reports the
wait times for all patients combined. This is consistent with the wait-
time goals of VHA published in the Federal Register on October 17,
2014. 79 FR 62519. As required by section 206, the new data is also
reported for each VHA facility, down to the level of Community-Based
Outpatient Clinics.
For this release, VA is publishing two reports, one that provides
wait times data as of October 1 based on the previous reporting method,
and one that reports the wait-times data for the same time period based
on current reporting method. VA will continue to report average wait
times using both methods for a period of time sufficient for veterans
to become accustomed to the new reporting method.
The following is a summary of the wait times data, based on
preferred appointment date, that is published at http://www.va.gov/health/access-audit.asp. This data can also be accessed from the Web
sites of each VA Medical Center following the release of each update.
The average wait times for primary care, specialty care, and mental
health care by Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) are provided
in the following tables:
Sample Table Wait Times by VISN: Current Method
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Primary care Specialty care Mental health
VISN average wait average wait average wait
time time time
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VISN 1.......................................................... 4.60 5.50 4.30
VISN 2.......................................................... 3.24 7.54 3.82
VISN 3.......................................................... 2.39 4.66 1.94
VISN 4.......................................................... 4.24 8.13 2.67
VISN 5.......................................................... 7.83 6.69 4.14
VISN 6.......................................................... 13.49 8.12 6.83
VISN 7.......................................................... 11.29 7.93 4.89
VISN 8.......................................................... 3.75 7.90 2.53
VISN 9.......................................................... 8.04 4.61 4.12
VISN 10......................................................... 4.60 6.94 2.77
VISN 11......................................................... 3.67 4.71 1.99
VISN 12......................................................... 5.32 7.73 3.67
VISN 15......................................................... 2.59 5.95 2.51
VISN 16......................................................... 7.52 7.12 4.37
VISN 17......................................................... 9.72 5.95 7.16
VISN 18......................................................... 10.98 10.59 7.50
VISN 19......................................................... 10.28 8.50 8.33
VISN 20......................................................... 6.18 7.75 1.91
VISN 21......................................................... 6.71 9.77 2.78
VISN 22......................................................... 6.66 9.05 4.78
VISN 23......................................................... 3.94 5.00 2.35
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Note: Wait Time is calculated from the veteran's preferred date or clinically appropriate date. Average wait
time represents the average number of days patients are waiting for an appointment as of 10/1/2014. Primary
Care is composed of three DSS Stop Codes, Specialty Care is composed of 41 DSS Stop Codes, and Mental Health
is composed of 7 DSS Stop codes.
Sample Table Wait Times by VISN: Previous Reporting Method
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Established Established
New primary New specialty New mental patient patient Established
VISN care average care average health average primary care specialty care patient mental
wait time wait time wait time average wait average wait health average
time time wait time
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VISN 1.................................................. 36.99 39.24 26.55 4.51 5.15 4.23
VISN 2.................................................. 36.77 48.57 28.69 3.14 6.63 3.72
VISN 3.................................................. 23.58 32.37 26.56 2.35 4.15 1.86
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VISN 4.................................................. 35.73 41.36 30.92 4.14 7.74 2.57
VISN 5.................................................. 52.26 39.27 64.56 7.29 6.36 4.08
VISN 6.................................................. 55.99 43.68 37.63 12.50 7.58 6.52
VISN 7.................................................. 50.37 48.28 34.14 10.27 6.89 4.62
VISN 8.................................................. 44.26 46.52 33.17 3.66 7.09 2.44
VISN 9.................................................. 54.96 47.08 34.62 7.66 4.18 4.02
VISN 10................................................. 32.09 37.47 34.05 4.39 6.37 2.68
VISN 11................................................. 30.22 39.91 25.51 3.50 4.28 1.82
VISN 12................................................. 27.10 36.77 29.14 5.23 7.35 3.64
VISN 15................................................. 35.79 43.30 31.82 2.45 5.27 2.47
VISN 16................................................. 37.73 43.85 35.98 7.23 6.69 4.17
VISN 17................................................. 47.43 36.06 29.92 9.27 5.64 6.97
VISN 18................................................. 38.86 42.97 41.71 10.61 9.59 7.36
VISN 19................................................. 49.40 43.73 33.91 8.56 7.34 8.13
VISN 20................................................. 37.48 49.88 39.77 5.98 6.05 1.81
VISN 21................................................. 33.24 41.10 28.44 6.69 9.16 2.64
VISN 22................................................. 34.35 43.73 39.56 6.35 8.21 4.44
VISN 23................................................. 29.89 43.12 33.76 3.89 4.33 2.25
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Note: Wait Time is calculated from appointment create date for new patient appointments and from appointment desired date for established patient
appointments. Average wait time represents the average number of days patients are waiting for an appointment as of 10/1/2014. Primary Care is
composed of three DSS Stop Codes, Specialty Care is composed of 41 DSS Stop Codes, and Mental Health is composed of 7 DSS Stop codes.
Signing Authority
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, or designee, approved this
document and authorized the undersigned to sign and submit the document
to the Office of the Federal Register for publication electronically as
an official document of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Jose D.
Riojas, Chief of Staff, approved this document on October 30, 2014, for
publication.
Dated: October 31, 2014.
William F. Russo,
Acting Director, Office of Regulation Policy & Management, Office of
the General Counsel, Department of Veterans Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2014-26274 Filed 11-4-14; 8:45 am]
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