Patient Access Data

At the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), our most important mission is to provide the high quality health care and benefits Veterans have earned and deserve — when and where they need it. To support that mission, we measure and release patient access data.

2015 Local Patient Access Data

NOTE: Patient access data released in 2014 is available in the 2014 Patient Access Data Archive.

Regularly updated patient access data is available for all VA Medical Centers and Community-Based Outpatient Clinics including average wait times, number of patients waiting for a scheduled appointment and number of patients that cannot be scheduled for an appointment in 90 days or less. Both completed and pending appointment data is available.

Pending: Scheduled appointments at a facility except surgery and procedures.

Completed: Completed appointments at a facility except surgery and procedures.

September 2020 Data Releases September 10, 2020 Pending Appointments (Snapshot of data on September 1, 2020)

March 2019 Data Releases March 14, 2019 Pending Appointments (As of 01 March 2019)

May 2016 Data Releases May 12, 2016 Pending Appointments (As of 1 May 2016) Initial Pending Appointments data published for May 1, 2016 did not include New Enrollee Appointment Request list totals at the national and local levels. This updated release includes these totals.

April 2015 Data Releases April 16, 2015 Pending Appointments (As of 4/1/15) April 2, 2015 Pending Appointments (As of 3/15/15) | Completed Appointments (As of 2/28/15) Initial Completed Appointments data published for April 2, 2015 contained an inaccuracy for the average wait for Mental Health appointments at a national level. This updated release has corrected the transcription error.

March 2015 Data Releases March 19, 2015 Pending Appointments (As of 2/15/15) | Completed Appointments (As of 1/31/15) Pending Appointments (As of 3/1/15) Pending Appointments (As of 2/15/15) and Completed Appointments (As of 1/31/15) were previously scheduled for release on March 5, 2015. VA did not post patient access data on March 5, 2015 due to an incomplete transmission of January 2015 appointment data from two facilities. This incomplete transmission of data resulted in underreporting the number of Veterans' appointments completed as well as associated wait times for those appointments. The reports VA is releasing today are updated with corrected information.

January 2015 Data Releases January 22, 2015 Pending Appointments (As of 1/1/15) Initial data published for 1/22/2015 contained an inaccuracy for the number of appointments scheduled for the clinics under the Gainesville, FL parent facility. Due to a transcription error, the facility names listed under the Gainesville parent facility were incorrectly populated. We have corrected this transcription error and apologize for the confusion. January 8, 2015 Pending Appointments (As of 12/15/14) | Completed Appointments (As of 11/30/14)

Wait Time Goals

VA Report to Congress on the definition of wait-time goals for purposes of the Veterans Choice Program Authorized by Section 101 of the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014.

VA Access Audit

In mid-April 2014, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs directed the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to complete a nation-wide Access Audit to ensure a full understanding of VA’s policy among scheduling staff, identify any inappropriate scheduling practices used by employees regarding Veteran preferences for appointment dates, and review waiting list management.

VA took corrective action to address issues resulting from the audit.

On Wednesday, May 21, 2014 VA launched the Accelerating Access to Care Initiative, a nation-wide program to ensure timely access to care. As directed by President Obama, VHA identified Veterans across the system experiencing waits that do not meet Veterans expectations for timeliness. VA began contacting and scheduling all Veterans who are waiting for care in VA clinics or arranging for care in the community, while simultaneously addressing the underlying issues that impede Veterans’ access.

In addition to the Access Audit process, VA also gathered additional data from each facility. This data includes: The number of appointments scheduled at each facility; the number of requested appointments that are on each facility’s Electronic Wait List; The number of newly enrolled patients who have not yet been scheduled by facility; and Average Wait Times for Mental Health, Primary Care, and Specialty Care at each facility, for both new and established patients.

Below you can find information about the complete findings of the Access Audit nation-wide, and in your VISN.

Factsheets from June 9, 2014 are available in the Access Audit Data Archive.