Throughout their history, the various federal agencies charged with providing benefits and assistance to veterans have been plagued by a variety of scandals. Following World War II, several government commissions uncovered widespread waste and poor quality of care. The poor performance continued into the 1970s when veterans were frustrated by the Veterans Administration’s reluctance to adequately fund treatment programs, particularly for the health consequences of exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange. In 1989 President Reagan created the Department of Veterans Affairs as a cabinet-level agency, but this still did not satisfactorily improve operations and patient care.

Since 2013 there have been continuing reports of long wait times for appointments at some Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical centers and some deaths have been attributed to those delays. Other media and government investigations found that some VHA medical facilities were not in compliance with VHA scheduling policies and procedures and that scheduling information was being altered to show better performance than was actually occurring. In August 2014, President Obama signed a $16 billion bill to build more VHA facilities and to hire more health care providers. Disciplinary actions, including the firing of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, were taken to address mismanagement within the VHA. Despite these efforts, the problem of long wait times for medical care at veterans’ facilities continues.

In this case study we continue the analysis begun in the case “Appointment Wait Times at Veterans Medical Centers” to determine if there have been statistically significant changes in the appointment backlogs at VHA medical centers in the southeastern part of the United States.