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The Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix continued to commit scheduling errors leading to delays and lack of care, more than two years after a major scandal involving patient wait times, according to the department’s watchdog. Employees at the Phoenix VA Health Care System during 2015 improperly canceled or delayed hundreds of specialty-care consults, many times because they simply didn’t know proper scheduling procedures or failed to contact patients, oversights that could have led to the death of at least one patient, according to a report released Tuesday by the department’s Office of Inspector General. (Kesling, 10/4)

Patients in the Phoenix VA Health Care System are still unable to get timely specialist appointments after massive reform efforts, and delayed care may be to blame for at least one more veteran's death, according to a new Office of the Inspector General probe. The VA watchdog's latest report, issued Tuesday, says more than two years after Phoenix became the hub of a nationwide VA scandal, inspectors identified 215 deceased patients who were awaiting specialist consultations on the date of death. That included one veteran who "never received an appointment for a cardiology exam that could have prompted further definitive testing and interventions that could have forestalled his death." (Wagner, 10/4)

A controversial proposal could boost the role of advance practice registered nurses in the Veterans Health Administration in 29 states and has garnered record-setting public input — 174,411 responses during the open comment period — with interest groups trying to sway the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with the sheer volume of comments. (Ayala, 10/3)