This latter charge guaranteed screaming headlines from the likes of CNN, but was later shown to be unsubstantiated. An exhaustive independent review of patient records by the VA inspector general uncovered that six, not forty, veterans had died experiencing “clinically significant delays” while on waiting lists to see a VA doctor, and in each of these six cases, the IG concluded that “we are unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the deaths of these veterans.”* In other words, the reality behind the headlines had little, if any, more significance than the fact that people die every day while waiting for an appointment to see their tax accountant or lawyer.

Those who showed up on waiting lists usually turned out to have been waiting for a routine visit with a primary care doctor rather than facing an urgent health care problem. Moreover, among those shown as waiting to see a primary care physician, many turned out to be already under the active care of a VA or non-VA specialist. In only twenty-eight out of the more than 3,000 patient cases examined by the inspector general was there any evidence of patient care being adversely affected by wait times. During the worst of the “crisis,” fully 89 percent of patients received appointments within thirty days of their preferred date. There was a long backlog of people waiting to see a urologist, but the nation as the whole faces an acute shortage of specialists in that field.
Moreover, the wait times in Phoenix were not typical of the system as a whole. Capacity constraints, for example, were greater in Phoenix than in most of the rest of the country due to the large number of retirees who had moved to the area in recent years, including “snow birds” who used the Phoenix-area VA system only during the winter months. In most VA facilities, wait times** for established patients to see a primary care doc or a specialist were in the range of two to four days, which compares favorably to the experience of most patients seeking care outside the VA. For the VA system as a whole, 96 percent of patients received appointments within thirty days.

In short, there was no fundamental problem at the VA with wait times, in Phoenix or anywhere else. But there was evidence of specific VA employees in Phoenix and other facilities using unorthodox scheduling practices to make wait times look shorter than they were, just as had happened during the Bush administration. Under Shinseki, the VA’s central office tried to crack down by issuing flurries of admonishing memos. Unfortunately, however, these edicts had little effect, in part because Shinseki had upped the ante. His metric demanding that all newly enrolled patients within the VA be offered an appointment with a primary care doc within fourteen days was a benchmark worth striving for, and one that few other health care providers would dare hold themselves accountable for meeting. But in trying to impose this ambitious goal on already-overstrained employees and facilities, the VA made itself vulnerable to enemies who were already set to pounce.

pacino wrote:the far right's rise in Europe

i guess they don't knw they aren't true conservatives!

JUburton wrote:Guess we find out today if jh's suicide watch alert goes up to Budd Dwyer or down to Andy Dwyer today.

TomatoPie wrote:

pacino wrote:the far right's rise in Europe

i guess they don't knw they aren't true conservatives!

What has given rise to the populists in Europe and America?

jerseyhoya wrote:

JUburton wrote:Guess we find out today if jh's suicide watch alert goes up to Budd Dwyer or down to Andy Dwyer today.

I've reached some level of acceptance with regards to Rubio. I hope he gives a lovely speech tonight though.

Still sort of in Trump denial. If he wins all five states that would be bad.

Think I'm probably just going to a bar and watching basketball and trying to ignore it.

JFLNYC wrote:

TomatoPie wrote:

pacino wrote:the far right's rise in Europe

i guess they don't knw they aren't true conservatives!

What has given rise to the populists in Europe and America?

Discontent of the proletariat.

TomatoPie wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

JUburton wrote:Guess we find out today if jh's suicide watch alert goes up to Budd Dwyer or down to Andy Dwyer today.

I've reached some level of acceptance with regards to Rubio. I hope he gives a lovely speech tonight though.

Still sort of in Trump denial. If he wins all five states that would be bad.

Think I'm probably just going to a bar and watching basketball and trying to ignore it.

Looks good for OH to Kasich and Mizzou to Cruz

TomatoPie wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:

TomatoPie wrote:

pacino wrote:the far right's rise in Europe

i guess they don't knw they aren't true conservatives!

What has given rise to the populists in Europe and America?

Discontent of the proletariat.

What has discontented them?

TomatoPie wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:

TomatoPie wrote:

pacino wrote:the far right's rise in Europe

i guess they don't knw they aren't true conservatives!

What has given rise to the populists in Europe and America?

Discontent of the proletariat.

What has discontented them?

drsmooth wrote:

TomatoPie wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:

TomatoPie wrote:

pacino wrote:the far right's rise in Europe

i guess they don't knw they aren't true conservatives!

What has given rise to the populists in Europe and America?

Discontent of the proletariat.

What has discontented them?

{sigh}

ok, let's hear your treatment, Captain Quizzical

"What we don't have time for is all that petty punk ass little thuggery stuff that's been going on with these quote-unquote protesters who are doing nothing but wasting your time,” Palin said at the rally. "And trying to take away your First Amendment rights, your rights to assemble peacefully, and the media being on the thug side." Palin then directed her eye contact to the cameras. "What the heck are you guys thinking, media? It doesn't make sense," she said.

"All I know is what's on the internet," Trump said.

"I retweeted somebody that was supposedly an expert. Am I gonna check every statistic?"

drsmooth wrote:That Williamson article is drawing incendiary reaction from people here whose opinions I especially value. It doesn't strike me quite the same way.