Monday, September 28, 2009

VAOIG Uncovers 296,000 misplaced and 141,000 lost Veteran Claims Folders

VAOIG Report Summary: Audit of Veterans Benefits Administration’s Control of Veterans’ Claims Folders
Report Number 09-01193-228, 9/28/2009


This VAOIG report is particularly telling given the prior VAOIG report of shredding of veterans records and claim folders at virtually every VA office, and the previously convicted VA Attorneys for losing and destroying veteran's records and claim files for the purpose of denying their claims

"Claims folders for approximately 296,000 (7 percent) veterans were at locations different from that shown in COVERS (misplaced). Of the 296,000 misplaced claims folders, we projected about 55 percent were found in other locations inside the regional office, and the remaining 45 percent were found at the VA Records Management Center (RMC).

"Claims folders for approximately 141,000 (3 percent) veterans were lost. Additionally, all of the lost folders had records in COVERS and the Beneficiary Identification and Records Locator System (BIRLS) indicating the folders existed and at one time had been at a Federal Records Center, the RMC, or a regional office."

Electronic Medical Alerts for Abnormal Results, Not Responded to 18% of the Time

Researchers have found that 18% of "123,638 imaging tests (including X-rays, computed tomographic [CT] scans, magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] and mammograms) performed during the study period", were not acknowledged.

"Nearly all abnormal test results lacking timely follow-up at four weeks were eventually found to have measurable clinical impact in terms of further diagnostic testing or treatment," the authors write.


Full Article at: Electronic alerts about abnormal imaging test results do not always result in timely follow-up
Contact: Bobbi Gruner
bobbi.gruner@va.gov
713-794-7349
JAMA and Archives Journals

"Abnormal results on outpatient imaging tests sometimes may not receive timely follow-up even when clinicians receive and read results in an advanced, integrated electronic medical record system, according to a report in the September 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals."

"The Department of Veterans Affairs, uses electronic communications with alerts to notify clinicians who order imaging tests about critical abnormal results".

"Timely follow-up of abnormal results did not occur following 92 (7.7 percent) of all alerts, including 7.3 percent of alerts that were acknowledged and 9.7 percent of alerts that were unacknowledged. This follow-up was also less likely to occur when more than one clinician received the alert, but more likely to occur when a radiologist also communicated concerns about the results verbally, either by phone or in person. "Nearly all abnormal test results lacking timely follow-up at four weeks were eventually found to have measurable clinical impact in terms of further diagnostic testing or treatment," the authors write."