INVESTIGATIONS

Phoenix veterans hospital gets VA's worst ranking

A five-star ranking system is used by the VA to evaluate hospitals for quality, service and safety based on a multitude of metrics, and it puts Phoenix's VA hospital at the bottom of the heap.

Dennis Wagner
The Republic | azcentral.com
Internal ratings released by the Department of Veterans Affairs show the VA hospital in Phoenix remains among the worst in the nation nearly three years after it became the epicenter of a national VA crisis.

Newly released health-care rankings confirm that the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix remains among the worst in the nation nearly three years after it became the epicenter of a national VA crisis.

Internal VA documents leaked to USA Today, and later supplemented with officially approved data, show the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center has a one-star score in a rating system where five stars is the top result.

In a series published in October on VA reform effortsThe Arizona Republic divulged Phoenix VA Health Care System's bottom ranking, but did not show scores for the system's nearly 150 other hospitals.

Exclusive: Internal documents detail secret VA quality ratings

The VA scandal erupted in Arizona when hospital employees revealed that veterans on backlogged appointment lists were dying while awaiting care. Whistleblowers also divulged that Phoenix VA officials produced phony wait-time statistics and collected bonuses based on the false data. Those practices, which turned out to be systemic, led to the resignation of then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and passage of a $15 billion reform bill.

After the controversy began, VA leaders claimed wait times do not fairly reflect health-care quality, and touted patient satisfaction as a better measurement. However, as reported by The Republic in October, the VA has misrepresented results from patient-satisfaction surveys while asserting that veterans hospitals perform as well or better than private medical centers.

Exclusive: Internal documents detail secret VA quality ratings

The five-star ranking system is used by the VA to evaluate hospitals for quality, service and safety based on a multitude of metrics gathered in a report known as SAIL (Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning). Results also are used by the VA to rate the performance of directors at each hospital.

When The Republic sought complete star rankings earlier this year, Dr. Peter Almenoff, special assistant to VA Secretary Robert "Bob" McDonald, declined to provide the list and said such data is not for public consumption. "We don't put those out externally," Almenoff noted. "We try not to focus on the stars."

That list, since obtained from internal VA documents by USA Today, indicates the Phoenix VA Health Care System is rated lowest in the nation. Just last month, Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson acknowledged ongoing struggles in Phoenix and said improvement at the hospital on Indian School Road is a top national priority.

SPECIAL REPORT: 7 VA hospitals, one enduring mystery

The Tucson-based Southern Arizona VA Health Care System got two stars as of Dec. 31, 2015. The Northern Arizona VA Health Care System, based in Prescott, received three stars in the same rating period.

The Republic visited seven VA hospitals this year in a quest to determine whether the nationwide system has improved in terms of medical care, customer service, accountability and integrity.

Here is how those hospitals scored in the VA's rating system as of Dec. 31, 2015:

  • Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center, three stars.
  • Edward Hines Jr. VA Medical Center, Chicago, three stars. 
  • Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, La., one star. 
  • VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, Denver, two stars. 
  • VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, two stars. 
  • Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center, Spokane, Wash., two stars.