Dive Brief:
- In the wake of the ongoing scandal that has uncovered widespread inadequacies in the Veteran Affairs department, secretary Eric Shinseki resigned Friday morning.
- Shinseki faced strong political pressure to step down, as outrage mounted over widespread and sometimes-deadly wait times, false reports and other negligent activity.
- Shinseki was VA chief for five years, and claims that he was misled by others.
Dive Insight:
The controversy came to light when it surfaced that as many as 40 veterans may have died while awaiting care at a VA hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. An incriminating Office of Inspector General report released Wednesday revealed deep discrepancies in wait-list data: Official VA data showed that a sample of 226 patients from the Phoenix clinic had waited an average of 24 days for primary care appointments, while the real wait time was an average of 115 days. The report focused primarily on the Phoenix clinic, but called inappropriate scheduling practices "systemic" throughout the VA.