Fayetteville VA Medical Center improves wait times

FAYETTEVILLE -- Veterans seeking care at the Fayetteville VA Medical Center are finding wait times a bit shorter, but overall they're still waiting longer than the national average.

Leaders of the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks hope campus improvements make visits quicker and more convenient.

Veteran care grabbed the national spotlight last year after revelations of long appointment delays at some VA facilities and attempts to hide the delays became public. Congress passed the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act late last year, which included money for VA facilities to hire additional staff, improve infrastructure and give veterans more care options.

Wanda Shull, Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks public affairs officer, said wait lists are not against the rules, but there are proper procedures a facility must follow. She said there is an electronic wait list at three Fayetteville clinics: neuropsychology, ophthalmology and ear, nose and throat.

The number of patients waiting more than 30 days for an appointment in Fayetteville has decreased, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Nearly 4,000 visits, or about 3.8 percent of the 105,700 appointments between Dec. 1 and May 31, were after 30 days. The six-month average between Sept. 1 and Feb. 28 was 3.9 percent.

The national average for the six months ending May 31 was 2.9 percent.

Fayetteville did have shorter wait times than the national average for veterans to get a primary care visit. The local wait time was 2.2 days compared to the national average of 4.3 days.

The Ozarks veterans system includes a 73-bed hospital, several specialty clinics and mental health center at 1100 College Ave. in Fayetteville and community-based outpatient clinics in Fort Smith, Harrison and Ozark; Branson and Mount Vernon, Mo.; and Jay, Okla.

There were 54,674 veterans in 23 counties enrolled in the system in fiscal 2014, Shull said. She said 47,096 patients visited the Fayetteville VA Medical Center 300,060 times. The federal fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

"We continue to aggressively monitor our access and will continuously look for ways to improve access to ensure patients are getting the timely care they need," she said.

Expanded hours in some clinics, hiring additional staff and looking for ways to operate more efficiently are a few steps Shull said are ongoing.

Carl Guhman, a Vietnam veteran, is helping the Fayetteville VA find improvement areas. He is a member of the Veterans Voices Advisory Council formed by veterans and their relatives last fall. A Mental Health Consumer Council has addressed mental health issues at the medical center for several years.

Guhman said the group's mission is twofold: help people with individual needs and make suggestions to management.

"Our role is to know what buttons to push to get the VA people back on track," he said. "Or if they need something outside the ordinary, it's knowing where to ask."

The group meets at 1 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month in the radiology conference room on the VA campus.

Guhman said the group welcomes visitors and new members.

"I've had really good care at this institution over the past two years and thought the council was a good way to give back," he said.

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, stated in an email it's important that access to care continues to show improvement both in service and facilities.

"While there are systematic problems at the VA nationwide, I have heard from many of my constituents about the quality care offered at the Fayetteville hospital and am happy to see the Fayetteville VA continue to strive for a higher standard," he stated. "I will continue to work with my colleagues to address remaining issues at the VA and the changes in culture necessary to ensure we can fulfill our promise to our veterans."

Womack serves on the Houses Defense subcommittee and served more than 30 years in the Arkansas Army National Guard.

The latest addition to the Fayetteville VA Medical Center won't help veterans get a quicker appointment, but it will help them find a parking space.

A new 504-space parking deck opened Friday, and leaders of the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks said it is just the latest example of how they are working to improve the 81-year-old campus.

"It's part of an incremental plan to modernize the campus," said Mark Worley, interim director, after a ceremony Thursday celebrating the deck's opening. "We want our facilities to match the quality of care we offer."

A new residential treatment facility is planned for the Leroy R. Pond Army Reserve Center at 1616 N. Woolsey St., adjacent to the campus, said Diana Hall, Fayetteville VA facility manager. The reserve center was among 200 across the country that closed after recommendations of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

A new step-down unit is also planned for the facility. A step-down unit provides intermediate care between intensive care and standard in-patient room care.

A new stand-alone mental health facility is on the drawing board for fiscal 2016 and an additional parking deck, also on the Leroy Pond property, is possible in the future, she said.

"We want to make it more convenient," Hall said. "This is an old campus and we are doing things that improve the patient experience."

One major change that improved patient access was the construction of a $63 million, 146,000-square-foot clinical addition, Hall said. Officials announced expansion plans in 2007, work started in 2009 and was completed in July 2013.

"It was very involved and very complex," Hall said.

The addition took the campus' total building area to 590,000 square feet, she said. The addition brought in some specialty clinics that were located off campus, including a women's clinic, sleep clinic, cardio-pulminology clinic, and vision and dental clinics. She said it also added 13,000 square feet for a pharmacy and laboratory services.

The project came in under budget, and Worley said they were able to divert $5 million to the parking deck. The 209,655-square-foot parking deck cost almost $12.5 million and was built in less than a year.

The deck not only added spaces, but allowed the VA to reconfigure the parking lots so patients will have closer access, Worley said. The decks first and fourth floors are for employees with the middle two for visitors.

Scott Test said the new parking arrangement will change his job. He is a 10-year Fayetteville VA volunteer and Korean War veteran. He works at the information desk at the main entrance and directs people where to go.

"The biggest problem we have here is parking," he said. "This will help make it more convenient for patients."

Christie Swanson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAChristie.

NW News on 07/13/2015