Nick Coltrain

nickcoltrain@coloradoan.com

A new federal report on the patient scheduling scandal at the Cheyenne VA Medical Center and its Fort Collins clinic pinned most of the wrongdoing on a single manager in the business office.

An investigation by the federal VA Office of Inspector General found there was no proof of — and the manager herself denied — any involvement by upper management in changing patients' appointment times to make the facilities' performance look better than the truth. The OIG investigation covered the period from 2011 through September 2013. The scandal became public in May 2014 with the release of a report by the Office of the Medical Inspector.

The business officer who oversaw the Fort Collins VA clinic, ground zero for the local scheduling scandal, left her position in July 2014. A spokesperson for the local VA branches said he could not confirm whether Theresa Garduno, the departed manager, was the one blamed in the OIG report.

"All appropriate action was taken against the employees," spokesperson Samuel House said.

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House highlighted that the VA has worked toward modernizing and enhancing scheduling processes, including more regular training. However, it still uses a system that he called, "pre-DOS," referencing a keystroke-based command system from the early 1990s. While the central VA office is working toward upgrading it, it's also a balance between spending money on a new system and putting that same money toward veteran care. It's also an "old and aging technology" that is nonetheless uniquely suited for the VA.

House also said that the scandal, while bureaucracy-rocking at the time, ultimately led to better care for veterans.

"What this situation did for the VA is it brought the VA to the forefront; as a veteran, I am getting better care because the system went through this," House said. "It's unfortunate that the system went through this, but the $17 billion Congress appropriated to move us forward is important. Without that, we'd be trying to serve veterans and still having huge difficulties doing that."

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In the most recent OIG report, released April 1, the manager told investigators that she was given no specific instructions to change veterans' appointment dates or desired appointment dates, and the changes were made to fix a prior error of schedulers using the default "today" input for setting desired appointment times for veterans. However, the manager also deflated the wait time veterans faced into a window the VA deemed acceptable.

She defended herself, saying "this had no effect on the veterans because they received the same appointment they otherwise would have received," according to the report. "When asked if she thought this was 'gaming' the system, she replied, 'yes.'"