The findings are part of a lengthy report by the Northern Virginia Technology Council, which volunteered earlier this year to examine the agency's scheduling system at the request of U.S. Sen. Mark Warner.
The VA, long criticized for case backlogs and other problems, came under renewed criticism earlier this year when an inspector general's investigation found that officials in Arizona falsified records to hide lengthy waiting periods for veterans seeking care.
The council said the VA's problems stem from a failure to update its systems for handling patients and to properly develop and retain its staff. It focused its fact-finding on VA hospitals in Hampton and Richmond.
"This situation has resulted in a counterproductive and error-prone working environment that has frustrated staff members for years, thus fueling a persistent staff-retention problem - the net effect of which has contributed... to the gradual erosion of public confidence," according to the technology council's report.
But the firms involved stressed that most VA employees who schedule patient visits and health care providers are not at fault.
"The vast majority of VA employees want to do the right thing, but they are seriously hampered by these issues," said Bobbie Kilberg, the council's president. "The resources do not match the needs."
The group recommended numerous changes ranging from replacing antiquated phone and computer scheduling systems to adding more parking spaces so veterans aren't late for appointments.
It also calls for overhauling how employees are hired, trained, evaluated and encouraged to stay with the agency.
Warner, who was critical of the VA's "very insular" culture, said Congress has allocated an extra $17 billion this year to address the VA's problems, but it won't be sufficient. The money is to be used to hire more medical professionals and to upgrade or expand facilities.
"The $17 billion will help, but unless there's a culture change, we're not going to see the kind of improvement in care that our veterans deserve," Warner said in a conference call with reporters Thursday.
The senator said the group's findings mirror what he has heard from veterans who deal with VA employees.
"We need to instill a sense of customer service," Warner said. "A lot of concerns out of the Hampton VA are in terms of just the level of civility in terms of scheduling.... There needs to be better training.... Many of the schedulers didn't understand how to use the system."
The report, which has been sent to VA Secretary Robert McDonald and veterans affairs committees in Congress, is based on a six-week review that focused primarily on Virginia's VA medical facilities.
The technology group focused on those hospitals "in the interests of time," Kilberg said. "But I think our team is pretty confident that the findings can be generalized to other VA medical facilities."
Warner said the appointment system and other procedures and equipment found to be at fault in Hampton and Richmond are the same as those used in other states.
"This is a national crisis," he said. "I think we would have found the same if we had sent teams into hospitals in Illinois and Missouri or other states as well."
©2014 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
