VA Exaggerates Quality of Care, Study Finds

Posted on May 11, 2007

southofboston.net

An exhaustive study of the VA health system and its administrators has found a pattern of overstating the quality of care, arguably at the expense of veterans. If Congress is under the impression that VA medical care is top notch, it is less motivated to appropriate resources for much-needed improvements.

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McClatchy Washington Bureau:

The Department of Veterans Affairs has habitually exaggerated the record of its medical system, inflating its achievements in ways that make it appear more successful than it is, a McClatchy Newspapers study shows.

While the VA’s health system has gotten very good marks for a transformation it’s undertaken over the past decade, the department also has a habit of overselling its progress in ways that assure Congress and others that the agency has enough resources to care for the nation’s soldiers.

The assurances have come at a difficult time for the agency, as a surge in mental health ailments among returning veterans over the last few years has strained the system and a spate of high-profile problems with caring for veterans in the VA and the Department of Defense’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center has provoked heightened public scrutiny.

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