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VA Office of Inspector General
Claims storage filing area at the VA Regional Office in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been dogged for years by complaints that the claims process is painfully slow. Now, a recent inspection by the VA Office of Inspector General shows exactly how difficult it can be to physically manage the volume of those cases.
At the VA's Winston-Salem Regional Office in North Carolina, an estimated 37,000 claims folders had been stored on top of file cabinets, according to the Inspector General's report released last week. Those piles had been stacked two feet high and two rows deep. The file cabinets were so close to each other that drawers could not be opened completely. More files had been stored in boxes on the floor and stacked along the wall.
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A load-bearing study found that the weight of the files exceeded the floor's capacity by 39 pounds per square foot.
"The excess weight of the stored files has the potential to compromise the structural integrity of the sixth floor of the facility," said the Inspector General report. "We noticed floors bowing under the excess weight to the extent that the tops of file cabinets were noticeably unlevel throughout the storage area."
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Inspectors found that the filing system had created an "unsafe environment" for employees; one worker suffered a minor shoulder injury in 2011 when folders fell from a filing cabinet. The filing system also put the records at risk, potentially exposing them to fire and water damage as well as loss and misplacement.
The inspection of the office was conducted in May as part of a nationwide effort to evaluate regional offices.
The Winston-Salem Regional Office, with 680 employees, serves more than 770,000 veterans in North Carolina. The state is home to six military installations, including Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, which rank sixth and eighth, respectively, in the largest number of discharges in the country.
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Staff at the office began having trouble storing files in 2005 when that location, as part of a national initiative, started collecting and processing disability claims prior to a service member's discharge. The office was one of two regional centers in the country to handle such cases, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Staff tried to transfer or retire 50,000 files in recent years, as well request more storage space. The office was denied extra room because of a lack of money and few external storage options.
Courtesy Winston-Salem Regional VA Office
Filing cabinets at the Winston-Salem Regional VA Office in a photo provided to NBC News on August 14, 2012.
In June, after learning that the floor load exceeded capacity, the office removed all folders sitting on file cabinets and placed them on separate floors. The office also intends to purchase a high-density file system for the basement, which will cost an estimated $405,000.
"We are on track to comply with (the report's) recommendations," the Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement to NBC News.
VA is working with the Department of Defense to create an integrated electronic medical record that could be used between both agencies, but it will not launch until at least 2017.
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at NBC News. Follow her on Twitter here.
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Just Google "Bush VA budget": While sending Americans off to two wars, G. W. Bush simultaneously slashed the VA budget. Obama has not restored that budget either.
There is simply no money to process the claims, or manage the agency in a modern fashion.
A disgrace.
If only there were a way to shrink those files down to the size of a small disc-shaped object, perhaps 3 1/2 inches wide...
McGuffin,
What a brilliant idea!! LOL You just made my night!!
Something else to think about: the federal regulation for keeping veteran medical documents is 75 years. My state law for keeping medical files is 10 years. There is a reason for this! If many years from now, it is discovered that a certain agent used during wartime is determined to be medically harmful, veterans have a right to file a claim. Remember agent orange?
In 1973, prior to the wide use of computers, a fire destroyed most of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO. Priceless Army service records dating back to the Civil War vanished in a matter of minutes. There is no surviving index of the records, so there is currently not even a comprehensive list of Americans who served in the Civil War, WWI, WWII, or Korea.
Contrast that with the British, or the French, or the Canadians, who have extensive and detailed records of military service.
This cluster-f$#k looks like St. Louis 1973 waiting to happen. It's called the Internet, people! The whole point is that information is not confined to a single paper-based repository that might be set on fire, confiscated, flooded, locked up or declared off-limits.
That doesn't mean the records have to be public, merely that they are not in one enormous central location staffed by two employees, and you need an appointment to look at your own file.
Get with it!
B.C. ???
Before Computers ???
WTF = Waiting To Fail
I'm 64 and the VA has denied every filing i have made. I was injured by Agent orange in Vietnam but the VA denies my claims. I was in a Zone outside of Nha Trang that was heavily sprayed with the Agent. I am now in a Wheelchair suffering from PN, and Diabets two of the most prominet problems of the Agent. My file at VA is most likely about 6-8 inches through and weighs about 7-8 pounds. If you multiply my case about around 100,000 you wil see why the are running out of space and teh weigh on the floor is so much;
My former employer had the same problem with the daily invoices & customer files until I started working at his company. Boxes and boxes full of daily invoices & repair orders going back almost 20yrs. File cabinets stuffed with so many folders that I had to brace one foot on the cabinet and pull a drawer as hard as I could to open it. Speaking from personal experience there is NO excuse for "physical storage difficulties" as long as off-site, secure storage facilities like Iron Mountain exist. You box them up, label it, and they will pick them up and secure them or destroy them off-site. If you need something in one of those boxes just call them, tell them which box you need, and they deliver it right back to your office. It's understandable for them to have a backlog like this, but poor office management is the reason for not addressing storage difficulties like this.
" VA is working with the Department of Defense to create an integrated electronic medical record." Wow, they are just now coming up with the idea? Just another way to spend additional money and they will never complete the process.
I recently retired and scanned my entire medical and dental records. Here's and idea,
Hey VA. I'm a VET and currently jobless, how about I come and start scanning all of those records for you. I have my own computer and scanner and able to start immediately.
to save taxpayers from Big Government... burn the files and end military welfare
easy, when it's someone's else slice of pie
And yet there are people in this country that want the government to manage more of their lives for them.
When will they ever learn?
Im a 12 year active duty veteran (1995-2007) who deployed on the front lines and in direct support of Operation Anaconda, Kosovo, Iraqi Freedom...etc. I deployed exactly 12 times in 12 years. I've been waiting since I got out to get my claim going but it is still in the "Reviewing Evidence" phase. Coordinated with a VSO, have talked to the VA directly and all they keep doing is pushing back my completion date back over and over. They say they have everything they need from me, but its still developing.
Yet, my neighbor who served only 4 years and never deployed has a 40% rating and my ex-wife who served only 24 months before an early discharge (never deployed and worked in an office) has a 50% rating and has had one since 2004. Even a guy I work with did 36 months in the Air Reserves and again, NEVER deployed, has a 30% rating from falling down while on the job during a weekend training session. The list goes on and on!!
THIS is why the VA is backed up. Many, many, many fully able bodied and employable veterans are seeking a free paycheck.
SO many Fraudulent Claims it's hard to weed out the genuine one's. These for the lack of a better word Vets have all the Medical help they need counseling physical therapy but that somehow doesn't heal the wounds only a Disability check every month cures all ill's. Bunch of Malingering Lying Fraudulent selfish people.
I agree. What started out as monetary assistance to help the crticially wounded, disfigured, loss of limb and literally disabled soldier and his family has turned into "I twisted my ankle on weekend duty".
Cases I agree with are years and years of exposure to loud noise, lifting 150lb cans of ammunition for years, cutting the end of a finger off, sever injury or mishap while on duty...etc.
Not, some guy or girl who gets a 50% disability for merely seeing a dead body (PTSD), slipping and scraping your knee and suggesting it causes you intense pain and suffering but plays sports all weekend, goes on the boat skiing and tubing and riding motorcycles after they get discharged.
We're talking about ANOTHER government agency. They're not paid to think, just show up everyday and collect a check. No incentives to try to do a BETTER JOB. What and hell is wrong with microfilm or putting data on computer. When I want copies of my VA Medical records I get either a paper copy or on disc which ever way I want it. Is it so hard for the VA to store data the same way?
Biggest lie ever told to kids entering service is that the VA has your back. I got out of the Marines in 1971. I never used anything from the VA including GI Bill when I got out. Now that I am retired I thought I would apply to the VA to get drug coverage. Guess what? I am an 8G which means I will probably never even get in the front door of the VA. Thank god I am financially secure enough to get my drug coverage from medocare part D and have medicare. I've already left instructions with my family that when I die they can forget the honor guard and the flag. They didn't help me when I was alive and I damn sure don't need them when I am dead.
I bet the employee with the hurt shoulder had no problem getting medical attention, therapy and probably time off work until they felt comfortable to return. All while disabled vets are being refused proper treatment that would probably cure them.
Seriously? And for 405k they could get a decent File management system and fit all of that onto one server. Save money on space and save money in the long run. But this is the government who is there to waste money.
The ridiculous expectation that someone who serves in the Imperial Legions is somehow entitled to live off the productive labors of the taxpaying citizenry for life is criminal.
Very eloquently put DAK But unfortunately it's True.
On active duty and waiting for neck surgery at Bethesda a couple of of returning veterans advised me to make copies of my medical record and do so at every visit. It turned out to be one of the better pieces of advice I received while in the service. When service members get out get to your County VA Rep. Mine, made copies for her files.
The descriptive adjectives to describe the VA. Bureaucratic, slow, inefficient, antique, self serving. What does a good bureaucracy do best? Nothing!
Nice and clean now, AND they have a new filing method,. It's not really possible to keep the files in any kind of order now, so they just issued a memo asking the clerks to memorize the contents of each file and memorize which cabinet they put it in. It's not that difficult to do if you think of something funny to associate with each line you're trying to memorize...
A digitized filing system requires fewer employees and transparency in the system is increased. Two reasons for some to resist change
You anti-tax people are just plain stupid .You want to whine and cry when things don't get done and then you don't want to do anything about resolving the issue.Either pay more in taxes so that the work that needs to be will get done or shut-up and suffer through the malaise that is crippling our government.I don't care what you do but please quit whining,it's very immature and irritating.
This is criminal. Didn't Obama want to help this with on-line computer records and medical info sharing --or was that another good idea blocked by the repubs and tea baggers?
Nothing is too good for America's veterans. And that is just what the nation is going to give them......nothing.
Watching the news today it looks like those illegal immgrants are getting plenty of government assistance. Somehow their paperwork will probably be processed a little quicker than it is for us veterans.