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Huntsville Leader

Friday, November 15, 2024

Birmingham VAMC facilities schedule 121,203 medical appointments in March 2019

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The Birmingham VA Medical Center Alabama scheduled 121,203 pending appointments across its locations during the period ending March 1, according to data collected from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Of the total number of appointments 114,329 had a wait time of 30 days or less (94.33%) and 6,874 appointments (5.67%) were scheduled more than 30 days out.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in January 2019 reported wait times for new appointments at VA health care facilities were similar to or better than wait times at private-sector providers between 2014 and 2017.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), however, released a report in July 2019 cautioning the VA’s data-tracking system only captures part of the appointment process and fails to account for the time that it takes the VA to enroll veterans in its health benefits program.

Debra Draper, health care director at the GAO, told the House Veterans Affairs Committee new patients may actually wait up to 70 days for an appointment when they first enroll for benefits.

The VA explains when veterans apply for benefits, they are assigned to one of eight priority groups, with those who need immediate care due to service-related disabilities placed in higher priority groups. Veterans who don’t have service-connected disabilities and who earn a higher income are placed in the lower priority groups.

Birmingham VA Medical Center Pending Appointments Scheduled in March
LocationTotal Appointments ScheduledAppointments Scheduled 30 Days or LessAppointments Scheduled More than 30 Days
Birmingham, AL52,17147,3894,782
Huntsville, AL17,63416,974660
Sheffield, AL (Florence)5,2715,2683
Rainbow City, AL4,4324,4293
Oxford, AL5,3065,25551
Jasper, AL1,9061,86145
Bessemer, AL3,5413,388153
Childersburg, AL2,8342,8277
Guntersville, AL3,8513,83714
Birmingham-7th Avenue, AL15,05314,313740
Callahan, AL9,2048,788416

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