June 16, 2014

Records Snafu Boosts Concerns Over Veterans' Hospital in Virginia
By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Army veteran Steffani Lynn Yates

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After a few days of feeling weak and nauseated, Army veteran Steffani Lynn Yates went to the medical center shetrusts with her health care — the McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center in South Side Richmond, Va.

On her second visit a few days later after the problem did not clear up, Mrs. Yates was surprised when the doctor examining her in the emergency room asked her if she had taken any illegal drugs.

“I don’t use drugs. I never have. I don’teven know what they look like,” said the 60-year-old South Side resident who is employed as a sandwich maker for a company that supplies supermarkets. When she asked the physician for an explanation, “he told me my medical records showed I had a history of cocaine use. I was shocked. And he said my records showed that I had tested positive for marijuana use in 2000. There’s just no way.”

Leaving in a huff, she placed a request for a copy of her medical records with the hospital on June 2. She was told it would take 20 days, but just three days later a package was delivered to her home on nearby Royall Avenue, where she lives with her truck driving husband.When she opened it, she found a letter from the hospital’s Record Processing Unit stating the enclosed paperwork was a response to her request.

As the Free Press has confirmed, there was one big problem with the paperwork: “The records I received were for someone else, actually a male individual I have never met,” she said, quipping, “I went to the hospital a woman and came out a man.”

For her, it was nothing unusual. She said the hospital sent her the wrong records the last time she requested her paperwork about five years ago. The hospital did not respond to a request for comment about this snafu, which appears to be an egregious breach of patient privacy laws — raising questions about McGuire’s ability to handle record keeping.

For the hospital, this snafu couldn’t have come at a worse time. Yates provided her story amid a huge uproar over patient services at McGuireand other Veteran Administration (VA) hospitals.The hospitals are now having to defend themselves from claims they are keeping patients, particularly new patients, waiting for months to see a doctor.

An audit the Veterans Administration released this week added fuel to the fire. According to the report, McGuire keeps new patients waiting up to 72 days to see a primary care physician, among the longest wait times among the 731 hospitals in the VA system.The average wait at Richmond’s VAcomplex is apparently the worst among Virginia VA hospitals. The average waits to see doctors at VA hospitals in Hampton and Salem averaged 68 days and 34 days,respectively, according to the audit.

Nationally, 57,000 patients have been on waiting lists for three months or more and have yet to get their first appointment, the audit found. These patients, the audit acknowledged, represent only about 2 percent of more than 2 million patients the hospital system see in a given year. McGuire officials are disputing the accuracy of the audit’s figures. According to spokeswoman Darlene Edwards, the wait time for an appointment currently averages no more than 37 days,and could be lower.The wait time for new patients requesting primary care has been and continues to be a focus of our staff,” she responded in a statement.

“We continue to address this through adding new staff members, additional clinic appointments and rural health outreach initiatives.” And veterans appear to support the hospital’s view. There has been no groundswell of complaints from veterans who use the hospital about long waits for an appointment. Indeed, the hospital is most notorious for the findings of racial bias against the management. Employees have repeatedly had their complaints of discrimination upheld, including a class action lawsuit that found the hospital favored White employees when it came to merit awards.The hospital also has faced its share of lawsuits over the care and treatment of patients.