Manager at VA said "we don't want to know or we'll have to treat it"

Veterans Affairs' mental-health system denounced at hearing
Wednesday's hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs followed the release of an inspector general's report Monday that found the VA has greatly overstated how quickly it provides mental-health care for veterans.
By Steve Vogel
The Washington Post

One manager directed the staff to focus only on the immediate reason for an appointment and not to ask the veteran about any other problems because "we don't want to know or we'll have to treat it," according to Tolentino.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs' mental-health-care system suffers from a culture where managers give more importance to meeting meaningless performance goals than helping veterans, according to testimony before a Senate committee Wednesday.

The hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs followed the release of an inspector general's report Monday that found the VA has greatly overstated how quickly it provides mental-health care for veterans.

"They need a culture change," Linda Halliday, the VA's assistant inspector general for audits and evaluations, told the committee.

"They need to hold facility directors accountable for integrity of the data."

VA practices "greatly distorted" the waiting time for appointments, Halliday said, enabling the department to claim that 95 percent of first-time patients received an evaluation within 14 days when, in reality, fewer than half were seen in that time.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairman of the committee, said the findings show a "rampant gaming of the system."

Nicholas Tolentino, a former mental-health administrative officer at the VA Medical Center in Manchester, N.H., told the committee that managers pressed the staff to see as many veterans as possible while providing the most minimal services possible.
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