Appointment Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Review · Department of Veterans Affairs OIG · 2020-09-01 · about Department of Veterans Affairs
Report
Title
Appointment Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Submitting OIG
Department of Veterans Affairs OIG
Component agency
Department of Veterans Affairs
Type
Review
Publication date
2020-09-01
Summary
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) took measures to protect patients and employees from COVID-19 by canceling face-to-face appointments that were not urgent and converting some of them to virtual appointments. The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) assessed VHA’s appointment management strategies and the status of canceled appointments. The review team found that about five million appointments (68 percent) canceled from March 15 through May 1, 2020, had evidence of follow up or other tracking. Patients completed appointments predominantly by telephone and some by video.
Recommendations (3)
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Status
Text
1
Closed
The OIG recommended the under secretary for health develop and clearly communicate a well defined strategic plan to all medical facilities for rescheduling patients and provide oversight particularly to those facilities with the highest rates of…
2
Closed
The OIG recommended the under secretary for health develop a mechanism to monitor facilities’ progress with following up on all cancellations to ensure facilities are not solely relying on COVID annotations or cancellation source classifications when…
3
Closed
The OIG recommended the under secretary for health ensure that facilities take appropriate follow up action on canceled or discontinued consults.