Needless Deaths At Phoenix VA Hospital

[From article]
At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.
The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.
[. . .]
 top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew about the practice and even defended it.
[. . .]
There's an "official" list that's shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And then there's the real list that's hidden from outsiders, where wait times can last more than a year
[. . .]
the elaborate scheme in Phoenix involved shredding evidence to hide the long list of veterans waiting for appointments and care.
[. . .]
"So the only record that you have ever been there requesting care was on that secret list," he said. "And they wouldn't take you off that secret list until you had an appointment time that was less than 14 days so it would give the appearance that they were improving greatly the waiting times, when in fact they were not."
[. . .]
Foote adds that when veterans waiting on the secret list die, they are simply removed.
"They could just remove you from that list, and there's no record that you ever came to the VA and presented for care. ... It's pretty sad."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/23/health/veterans-dying-health-care-delays/index.html

A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital's secret list
By Scott Bronstein and Drew Griffin

CNN Investigations
updated 9:15 AM EDT, Thu April 24, 2014