# Appointment Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic
> **Review** by 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

- **Rec 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…
- **Rec 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…
- **Rec 3** (Closed): The OIG recommended the under secretary for health ensure that facilities take appropriate follow up action on canceled or discontinued consults.
## Source
- [oversight.gov report page](https://www.oversight.gov/reports/appointment-management-during-covid-19-pandemic)
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