The US Department of Veterans Affairs released (I asked for news stories, not press releases. date needed here) a news release specifically on the problem of veterans’ wait times at the medical centers. The VA began posting their patient access data online in June 2014 so that they could establish new wait time goals. The wait times data isn’t all conclusive on how long veterans are actually waiting because they do not include less than two week wait times and same day appointments, so they have to look at the completed appointments to completely analyze it. The media has falsely reported on the VA(according to???) by miscalculating their wait times for the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System.
A year later, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee was skeptical about the department’s response to the wait times. The committee is concerned with the way they calculate their wait times(according to??). The department counted from the preferred appointment date to the actual appointment for wait times and the committee was counting from the first attempt to make an appointment to the appointment day. The Government Accountability Office did a new report (WHEN?) and found that 180 veterans newly enrolled across six medical centers and 60 of them have not been seen and half did not have access to primary care. Slightly more than half of them were seen within 30 days and the rest had wait times that ranged from 22 to 71 days.
Thompson, Ben. Why aren’t newly enrolled US veterans receiving timely care?; Despite efforts
of review and reform, a new report from the Government Accountability Office shows weeks-long wait times and scheduling challenges. . (2016, April 19). The Christian Science Monitor.http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.library.uark.edu/lnacui2api/api/version1/getDocCui?lni=5JK1-XF81-JC8H-M2YJ&csi=237924&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=t&hgn=t&oc=00240&perma=true
THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM THE VA, NOT A NEWS STORY
Washington: VA update on data and wait times . (2015, April 6). Retrieved September 13, 2017,
Yoder, Eric. House committee skeptical of VA wait-time figures. (2016, April 20 ). The
Washington Post , p. A15. http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.library.uark.edu/lnacui2api/api/version1/getDocCui?lni=5JK5-GN51-DXXY-302D&csi=237924&hl=t&hv=t&hnsd=f&hns=t&hgn=t&oc=00240&perma=true
Questions:
Will the data be normalized and calculated the same across the different agencies involved?
How can we use this data in a graphic to show the wait times comparatively?
Remember to cite the news organization and date when you summarize an article. I asked for news stories, not press releases.
The first question is relevant but I wonder about your use of “different agencies.” The data we will be examining is all VA data for various hospitals, so they are all within the same agency.
We will be moving to graphics next week – Tableau.