Atlanta

Senator Ossoff demanding change after Atlanta VA hospital gets 2 out 5 star rating

ATLANTA — U.S. Senator from Georgia Jon Ossoff is pressing for action in Washington, D.C. after a Channel 2 Action News report highlighted a poor rating for the Atlanta VA Medical Center.

Earlier this week, Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray learned the Atlanta VA Medical Center scored only two of five stars in the U.S. government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Servicer hospital quality of care ratings.

Senator Ossoff told Gray on Friday that he was back on the phone with the VA’s undersecretary for healthcare demanding improvement the day after seeing Channel 2 Action News’ report.

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“We need to see the results, not just the promises. And I’m going to continue to press the VA leadership to reduce wait times at VMC Atlanta,” the senator said.

Earlier this year, Ossoff met with VA leadership in Washington and asked them to improve wait times in Atlanta.

According to VA data, wait times for primary care at VAMC have improved by 23% in the last six months and Community Care Primary Care wait times have improved 57% since the beginning of the year.

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“Since that meeting, there has been some improvement. I want to acknowledge that. But we have a long way to go. We’re still talking about two or three months for veterans to get an appointment for a community care referral,” Ossoff said.

The Atlanta VA told Gray they are “encouraged by positive data trends from the last year.”

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