ATLANTA — There is new help coming to fix IT problems at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. The bipartisan legislation was signed into law by President Joe Biden.
From phones that didn’t work to scheduling problems, Channel 2 Action News has uncovered repeated IT problems at the Atlanta VA that impact veterans’ care.
The new law is designed to address those problems.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff told Channel 2 consumer investigators Justin Gray that those IT problems are what Congress intended to address in the Veteran Affairs IT Reform Bill, which was signed into law at the end of the year.
“We have identified that technological shortcomings that are driving some of the delays and some of the poor service,” Ossoff said.
In 2021, Channel 2 Investigates was the first to report on new phone systems at the Atlanta VA Medical Center that, for months, were often not working, leaving veterans like John Lomax unable to get through for help.
He was down to his last pain pill when we talked to him in July 2021.
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“I’m scared as hell, man. So, I’m on the phone all the time,” Lomax told us at the time.
In 2022, we told you about scheduling problems leading to wait times in Atlanta in some specialties that are double, and even four times the VA system nationwide.
The new law will require more transparency and accountability.
It requires the VA to provide Congress with essential detailed reports on IT projects before they start, report to Congress when IT projects miss critical deadlines, and provide Congress with a yearly list of unfunded IT projects.
“This legislation will help to insure competent, qualified personnel are carrying out those upgrades. That those upgrades are being implemented timely. And critically, that the US Congress has visibility into the progress of these IT projects which can drag on for months and months and even years,” Ossoff said.
The bill was included in the omnibus spending bill, so it is now the law of the land.
Any major IT projects by the VA are now required to provide this extra oversite and transparency.
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