VA struggles with delays on veterans clinics

Not only does the Veterans Administration have troubles with the accuracy of data for how long veterans are waiting for their medical appointments, but a new report says the VA also regularly encounters delays and financial issues as the agency moves to expand medical facilities that provide patient care to veterans.

The review by the Government Accountability Office says a study of 41 outpatient lease projects worth $2.5 billion, suffered delays, "ranging from 6 months to 13.3 years, with an average delay of 3.3 years."

The project that took over 13 years to complete was a satellite outpatient clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, which was first authorized in November of 1997, but never finished until November 2012.

"20 of the 41 outpatient clinic projects were reviewed (49 percent) experienced delays due to difficulties in locating or securing a suitable site," the GAO report noted.

In many cases, those delays also led to higher costs for the VA, which was a familiar finding for the GAO.

"In April 2013, we found that costs substantially increased and schedules were delayed for VA's largest medical-center construction projects," this report noted.

"I'd remind you that we've got four VA hospitals that are under construction right now that are a trillion dollars over budget," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK).

Here was the list of 41 VA facilities and the length of delays:

Of the 41 projects reviewed by the GAO, only two were finished ahead of schedule, an outpatient clinic in Fort Wayne, Indiana and a community-based outpatient clinic in Salem, Oregon.

As for cost overruns, the GAO had detailed data on 31 of the 41 projects reviewed above - 15 of the 31 spent more money than originally envisioned in the first year, while 16 spent less, about a 50/50 split.

From worst to best: