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Mental health wait at St. Cloud VA longer than most

St. Cloud Times (MN) - 4/9/2015

April 09--Outpatient mental health is a specialty of the St. Cloud VA Health Care System, but the time it takes to get an appointment for that type of care takes longer than at most other VA systems around the nation.

Mental health patients incur a wait of 4.13 days from the time a doctor refers them for one or they request an appointment on their own until they are seen by a psychiatrist. That's based on the average monthly data the government has compiled at www.va.gov from September through February.

The national average wait time for a mental health appointment in that same time frame is 2.92 days. The average wait time in the Minneapolis VA system is 1.1 days.

In February, the average wait time in the St. Cloud system was 4.23 days. Of 150 VA systems across the country, 27 had longer wait times. The longest was in El Paso, Texas, (12.95 days). There were six facilities with a wait time longer than seven days.

"We have initiated a physician recruiting contract in order to assist with recruiting," VA spokesman Barry Venable said in an email statement to the Times. "Recruitment of providers is active, ongoing process, as we seek to maintain current numbers and specialties and to increase the number of providers and add additional specialties. Twenty-three permanent physicians and mid-level providers have been recruited in the past 18 months in order to maintain and improve access to care. St. Cloud continues to use (temporary) providers to temporarily fill vacancies while recruitment actions are ongoing."

Despite the relatively long wait times for mental health appointments, some people who are familiar with the St. Cloud VA say the system is working better than it could be.

"My only complaint is I've had psychiatrists transfer -- I'm on my third one now," said Craig Engen, a 40-year-old Army veteran from Duluth who moved to St. Cloud to take part in its chemical dependency treatment program. "I have issues with depression and anxiety and sometimes it might take two weeks to see someone, but they've been good about squeezing you in if you need it."

Terry Ferdinandt, Stearns County Veterans Service Officer, said the VA performance in mental health is good compared with the private sector.

"If you (as a civilian) had to go see a mental health provider today, I'm thinking you'd wait over two months in this town to get seen," Ferdinandt said. "I know that from people I've talked with."

St. Cloud was well below the national average in wait time for a primary care appointment (1.61 days) and slightly below the national average in the wait for a specialty care appointment (4.19 days).

Follow Kevin Allenspach on Twitter @KevinAllenspach. Call him at 255-8745.

Average VA wait times in days

Below is a chart showing the average wait times in days for the period September through February, according to data at www.va.gov:

Facility

Primary care

Specialty care

Mental health

St. Cloud VA system

1.61

4.19

4.13

Minneapolis VA system

2.07

2.69

1.13

National average

4.00

4.79

2.92

___

(c)2015 the St. Cloud Times (St. Cloud, Minn.)

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