Rep. Capito: Hold West Virginia VA Hospitals Accountable

Press Release

U.S. Representative Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) is seeking answers from West Virginia's Veterans Affairs hospitals on their appointment scheduling practices in light of the Veterans Administration audit released today.

Today's report found that the VA currently has 57,436 veterans waiting for care, and the audit included wait times for veterans at the facilities the auditors visited. Among all the VA facilities visited, the Clarksburg VA had the fourth-longest wait time for new patients seeking an appointment with a specialist (86 days) and the second-longest wait time for new patients seeking mental health care (96 days).

In a letter to Beth Brown, director of the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, Rep. Capito questions how the hospital could have accumulated such a backlog.

"It is impossible that you and your senior staff did not know the extent to which your facility is failing to care for our veterans. Placing second and fourth on lists of poorest-performing VA hospitals in these categories is unacceptable, infuriating and intolerable. It is unconscionable that new patients unfamiliar with the VA system are forced to wait this long for care," Rep Capito wrote.

She asked Director Brown for answers by the close of business Thursday to several questions, including why the director did not inform the congresswoman of these backlogs when Rep. Capito visited the hospital on May 5.

In separate letters, Rep. Capito also asked the directors of the VA hospitals in Beckley, Huntington and Martinsburg for details on their backlogs, including how many new patients are waiting for appointments and how they are working to reduce their backlogs.

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