• Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a series on Hines VA Hospital’s response to inquiries from the Kane County Veterans Assistance Office regarding quality of care for local veterans. Click here to read Part 1 of the series.

Screen shot from Hines VA website, http://www.hines.va.gov/#.

As reported in an earlier article on Kane County Connects, Kane County Veterans Assistance Superintendent Jacob Zimmerman sent the letter and Freedom of Information Act request on April 25 to Hines VA Hospital requesting information on wait times for veterans under the hospital’s care.

Of Kane County’s 25,274 veterans, 4,289 were enrolled in the Veterans Administration health care system. And of those 4,289 veterans, most are served by Hines.

That’s why Zimmerman wanted to know as much as possible about the service at Hines and why he wants to make it clear that Kane County veterans have an advocate if they have any concerns about the service there. Zimmerman said he will personally follow up on any complaints brought to his attention.

“We are the veterans’ advocate,” he said. “If they’re having any issues, give us a call, and we’ll fight on their behalf.”

What the FOIA documents reveal is that Hines is not meeting its own performance targets in 21 of 45 categories.

And those targets aren’t setting the bar too high.

Hines’ performance target is to have 47 percent of its primary-care patients seen by doctors within 14 days of the appointments’ scheduling. The specialty-care performance target is to have 43 percent of patients obtain an appointment within 14 days.

According to the March data received in the FOIA request, 187 primary-care patients out of 456 were seen within that 14-day limit. The average wait time was 20 days.

Some of the bad news from other categories:

• Just 17 percent of urology patients (26 of 149) were seen within 14 days. However, if you are interested in getting checked then it might be a good idea to check out something like this Advanced Urology centre.
• The average wait time for a neurology appointment was 43 days.
• Just one of 26 gastroenterology patients — 3.85 percent —was seen within that 14-day window.

Zimmerman repeated that he hopes any Kane County veteran with a concern will call his office.

“When I take it to the assistant director (of the Inspector General’s Office), things happen,” he said. “We’re keeping track and making sure what we receive from VA is accurate.”

The phone number of the Kane County Veterans Assistance Commission is 630-232-3550. Zimmerman’s email is zimmermanjacob@co.kane.il.us. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Hines VA Hospital Primary Care Performance

(Target is 47 percent or higher. Categories that missed target are printed in red.)

• Comprehensive Women’s Primary Care — 78% (7 in less than 14 days, 9 completed)
• Primary Care Medicine — 41% (187/456; Average wait time was 20 days.)
• Geriatric Primary Care — 50% (6/12)

Specialty Care Performance

(Target is 43 percent or higher. The following are the categories that did NOT meet the performance target. In parentheses are the appointments completed in 14 days or less, the number of completed appointments, followed by the average wait time in days for the month of March 2014.)

• Physical Med and Rehab SVC — 40% (47/118; 17 days)
• Audiology — 42% (119/280; 20 days)
• Speech Language Pathology — 40% (10/25; 13 days)
• Physical Therapy — 38% (26/29, 19 days)
• General Internal Medicine — 18% (6/34; 39 days)
• Allergy Immunization — 13% (2/15; 40 days)
• Dermatology — 26% (36/136; 44 days)
• Diabetes — 8% (4/49; 27 days)
• Gastroenterology — 4% (1/26; 25 days)
• Pulmonary/Chest — 15% (13/88; 43 days)
• Renal/Nephrol (Except Dialysis) — 40% (17/42; 18 days)
• Neurology — 25% (23/93; 43 days)
• Hepatology Clinic — 17% (3/18; 36 days)
• Ear, Nose and Throat — 26% (52/198; 20 days)
• Ophthalmology — 17% (49/294; 36 days)
• Podiatry — 13% (19/149; 50 days)
• Thoracic Surgery — 36% (5/14; 19 days)
• Urology — 17% (26/149; 28 days)
• Vascular Surgery — 28% (5/18; 21 days)

Hines met its specialty-care performance target score in 23 categories:

• Comprehensive women’s primary care — 78%
• Geriatric primary care — 50%
• Nutrition/dietetics — 51%
• Radiation therapy — 86%
• Dental — 45%
• Polytrauma/Traumatic brain injury — 50%
• Occupational therapy — 68%
• Spinal cord injury —75%
• Kinesiotherapy — 72%
• Cardiology — 64%
• Hematology — 44%
• Infectious disease — 92%
• Rheumatology — 75%
• General surgery — 52%
• Gynecology — 48%
• Neurosurgery — 54%
• Optometry — 50%
• Plastic surgery — 82%
• Pain clinic — 86%
• Mental Health Clinic — 95%
• Psychology — 100%
• Sub use disorder — 100%
• Mental health integrated care — 84%
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder — 100%