Dive Brief:
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An evaluation of the Veterans Health Administration’s efforts to improve access to outpatient psychiatrists finds it has "not been fully effective in its use of hiring opportunities or its use of existing personnel to improve veterans’ access to psychiatrists," says a report by the Office of Inspector General.
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The evaluation was performed to assess progress after a report in 2012 found patients encountered a lack of access to a psychiatrist for an average of 41 days.
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OIG found VHA did significantly increased its number of psychiatrists providing outpatient care. However, 94 of 140 healthcare facilities still needed additional psychiatrist FTEs to meet demand.
Dive Insight:
The evalution reproaches VHA for failing to address its specific need for psychiatrists during hiring efforts, and for leaving individual facilities to use their own methods to decide their staffing needs.
It adds the VHA also failed to ensure that facilities used consistent and effective clinic management practices, which resulted in inefficiencies and a high percentage of wasted clinical time.
The report recommends that VHA facilities incorporate the Office of Mental Health Operations staffing model to determine how many psychiatrists it requires for outpatient care, and VHA work as needed with individual facilities to reach appropriate staffing levels or find other options to keep up with veterans' need for psychiatrists.