WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, issued this statement today following the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) admission that its computerized medical appointment system has failed to improve patient scheduling:

"VA's repeated failure to implement an effective computerized scheduling application for medical appointments is unacceptable.  The continued inability to put a working system in place damages both the efficiency and effectiveness of VA's health care system, to the detriment of veterans in need and the hard working professionals striving to assist them. 

"I look forward to learning about Secretary Shinseki's plan to fix this problem that he has inherited," said Akaka.

In 1998, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) published a report on excessive wait times for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients.  VA disclosed in a Congressional briefing today that the current system, the Replacement Scheduling Application (RSA) Development Program, has failed to develop any usable scheduling capacity.  Today's disclosure follows reports on an internal VA memo regarding systematic RSA failures.

-END-

 April 15, 2009