More than 18,000 medical appointments were delayed at least a month at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics in Pennsylvania during a recent six-month period. But the vast majority of veterans are receiving care within the VA's goal of 30 days.
An Associated Press analysis of wait times between September and February indicates about 18,000 out of about 987,000 appointments at the state's 41 VA facilities exceeded 30 days.
That's 1.8 percent, compared with the national average of 2.8 percent.
The Pennsylvania analysis is part of a national AP reporting project that determined according to VA data that wait times haven't improved since Congress gave the department $16.3 billion to hire more doctors and open new clinics.
The state's busiest facility, the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, reported the most waits exceeding 30 days -- 6,951 or 3.7 percent.
Wait Times at Pennsylvania VA Clinics Better Than Average
Copyright AP - Associated Press
