The Fayetteville Veterans Hospital increased its Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning rating from a two in 2015 to a five in 2016.
During this time, the VA rolled out a new scheduling procedure, said Wanda Shull, spokeswoman for the Veterans Health System of the Ozarks.
“It’s important to the VA that we track how quickly they can get people in,” Shull said.
The Veterans Health Administration uses a comprehensive performance improvement tool called SAIL to measure access to care, quality of mental health care, employee perception about the organization, nursing turnover and efficiency.
This is used to assess the overall quality of the VA medical center from relative performance compared to other VA medical centers using a star rating from one to five and showing performance comparisons from 2015 to 2016.
Some veterans have had positive visits at the Fayetteville Veterans Hospital over the years while others have not.
Butch Finley who lives in Eureka Springs has been waiting on an appointment at the VA for almost two months before being seen for Mountain Tick Fever.
Finley said he would seek outside care if they made it easier.
“I gotta go through a lot of hoops and it’s just a big hassle,” Finley said. “I’d give them a one.”
The Choice Program, pays for veterans to see a private doctor if they are facing long waits or travel time, according to the Veterans Affairs website.
If someone cannot be seen in 90 days, the patient would go onto the electronic wait list, but people get off that every day, Shull said.
Finley’s daughter, Alex Taylor, thinks it’s hard to believe the Veterans hospital was ranked a five in 2016 because they gave such long wait times, she said.
The Fayetteville VA wait time over 30 days has gone down since 2015-16. Less than two percent of patients have to wait more than 30 days for an appointment.
In the last year the Department of Veterans Affairs has made changed how staff sets appointments and continual communication from workers to patients.
The VA hospital began to schedule appointments up to a year in advance.
Staff works with patients pending an appointment to get seen sooner.
“That’s how we do better tomorrow,” Shull said.
Taylor worked for the Fayetteville VA three years and still had trouble setting appointments, she said.
Others have had a positive experience.
John Philpott, has been going to the Fayetteville Veterans hospital for 20 years and he thinks they’ve been pretty consistent, he said.
“If they can’t do it in two weeks, I can seek outside care, Philpott said.
Philpott generally gets an annual physical done at the Veterans hospital, he said.
Some veterans don’t use the Veterans Hospital because of income.
Mike Culpepper, 66, from Elkins, doesn’t use the Veterans hospital because his wife makes enough money and they don’t qualify, but he’s okay with that, he said.
The data was recently released updating the SAIL rating and the Fayetteville Veterans Hospital dropped by one and is now at a four.
These photos were taken at the American Legion in Fayetteville Wednesday Nov. 8.In the other photo, it is (left)Alex Taylor daughter of (right)Butch Finley.
This is Jason Pense, John Philpott and Jay Pense after eating lunch at the American Legion.
This is the Star Rating for Fayetteville and Little Rock Arkansas. Memphis Tennessee and Shreveport Louisiana.
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