Veterans facing significant challenges accessing radiology services, VA watchdog says
Veterans are facing significant challenges accessing radiology services at VA clinics, according to a new watchdog report.
The VA Office of the Inspector General recently conducted a national review to assess whether facilities meet key performance standards. It found that 13 of the 15 included sites “lacked essential call data,” making it “impossible” to evaluate whether vets are receiving timely care.
Out of the nearly 1 million untracked calls, at least 338,000 were related to radiology clinics, “putting veterans who may need timely and critical care at risk.”
“Veterans trying to access care at these clinics reported that they faced delays, uncertainty and frustration,” the preliminary report, released on Feb. 19, noted. “For example, in March 2025, a veteran’s spouse reported difficulty scheduling a critical radiology appointment for her husband who required evaluation for cancer that may have spread. She reported making multiple phone calls that went to voicemail, with no follow-up within the promised 24 hours.”
The VA OIG conducted the investigation in November in response to complaints from patients and families such as this one. It charged that the country’s largest integrated healthcare system must do more to track metrics such as call volume, speed of response and abandonment rates. Yet, nearly half of the 2.1 million call attempts between August 2024 and last July lacked this “critical data.”
“Veterans reported delays, frustration, and in some cases, resorted to in-person visits to schedule appointments,” the report noted.
Despite first communicating these initial findings in January, only 19 of the 49 clinics indicated they had plans to reconfigure their systems to capture call data. Another seven said they had zero plans to make updates. The OIG examined call operations for 90 clinics across six specialties—radiology, audiology, dental care, mental health, optometry and podiatry—using data from 15 statistically selected sites (out of 132).
Clinics were selected because VA patient complaints reported in the VA’s patient advocate system frequently involved calls for such specialties. Veterans at the 13 sites also reported being unable to reach staff by phone to schedule or change appointments. The OIG said it observed struggles firsthand during visits at VA facilities in Miami, Florida and Washington, D.C.
The national review remains ongoing, with the VA OIG planning to release a comprehensive analysis of its findings in a forthcoming final report.
“Because phone access is a primary way veterans schedule specialty care appointments, the absence of data needed to track call performance may impact VHA’s awareness of delays in veteran’s timely access to care, especially for high-risk patients needing mental health or radiology services,” the report concluded. “Further, absent data may prevent leaders from identifying problems or taking corrective action to ensure timely, seamless care.”
CNN shared news of the report on March 11, noting that multiple veteran advocacy groups are calling for action to address these shortcomings.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.