Got Premature Death? An Overview of the VA Scandal

It began in 2012 when scattered reports of mismanagement at VA hospitals started to emerge across the country, from vets contracting Legionnaires’ disease at a VA hospital in Pittsburgh to the deaths of several vets after an Atlanta VA hospital lost track of patients to a November 2013 report on CNN that the nation’s soldiers were dying in a Columbia, South Carolina VA hospital as they waited for routine gastrointestinal tests.

• Early 2012: Dr. Katherine Mitchell, a Veterans Affairs emergency-room physician, warns Sharon Helman, incoming director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, that the Phoenix ER is overwhelmed and dangerous. Mitchell now alleges she was told within days by senior administrators that she had deficient communication skills and was transferred out of the ER.

• Later in 2012: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs orders implementation of electronic wait-time tracking and makes improved patient access a top priority. In December, the Government Accountability Office tells the Veterans Health Administration that its reporting of outpatient medical-appointment wait times is “unreliable.”

• March 2013: The GAO’s Debra Draper tells a House subcommittee: “Although access to timely medical appointments is critical to ensuring that veterans obtain needed medical care, long wait times and inadequate scheduling processes at VAMCs (medical centers) have been persistent problems.”

• July 2013: In an e-mail exchange among employees at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix, an employee questions whether administrators are improperly touting their Wildly Important Goals program. “I think it’s unfair to call any of this a success when veterans are waiting six weeks on an electronic waiting list before they’re called to schedule their first PCP (primary-care provider) appointment,” program analyst Damian Reese complains.

• September 2013: Mitchell files a confidential complaint intended for the VA Office of Inspector General, channeled through Arizona Sen. John McCain’s office. Her list of concerns instead goes to the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs and eventually back to the VA. Mitchell, meanwhile, is placed on administrative leave.

• October 2013: Dr. Sam Foote, a doctor of internal medicine at the Phoenix VA, files a complaint with the VA Office of Inspector General alleging purported successes in reducing wait times stem from manipulation of data, and that vets are dying while awaiting appointments for medical care.

• December 2013: Foote retires, assuming the role of whistle-blower by meeting with Arizona Republic reporter Dennis Wagner. He details allegations that patients have died while awaiting care at the Phoenix VA and that wait times have been falsified.

• April 9: Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, says during a hearing that dozens of VA hospital patients in Phoenix may have died while awaiting medical care. He says staff investigators have evidence that the Phoenix VA Health Care System keeps two sets of records to conceal prolonged waits for appointments.

• April 16: A Phoenix rally organized by Concerned Veterans for America and attended by Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., draws 150 veterans and their supporters calling for solutions to the controversy.

• May 1: U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki places Helman and two others on administrative leave pending an outcome to the inspector general’s probe.

• May 2: Mitchell goes public with her allegations about mismanagement of the Phoenix VA system and her concerns about wait times, noting that she and a co-worker moved to protect some documents as evidence.

• May 5: The American Legion’s national leaders call for Shinseki’s resignation. Shinseki says he intends to stay put.

• May 8: Shinseki orders records audits of all VA health-care facilities around the U.S. a day after U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., makes the request.

• May 19: White House claims it found out about the fraudulent activity through the news.