This Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix is at the center of a management scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs involving the doctoring of records to hide chronic delays in providing medical and mental health care to veterans.(Photo: Christian Petersen, Getty Images)

"Insufficient oversight" of data at a veterans' health care network in West Texas resulted in the VA reporting that the region had more than 43% of its medical jobs vacant as of July, nearly double the actual rate, a Veterans Health Administration spokesperson said.

Those vacancies, provided by and confirmed by the VA's central office, ranked the West Texas network as having the highest vacancy rate among 139 VA health care systems nationwide.

But no one at the West Texas VA health care system, which includes a medical center in Big Spring, Texas and six outpatient clinics, had updated or checked the figures in the VA's computer system for months. Officials there were tracking vacancies through other tools and in executive staff meetings, but had not updated the national VA,, according to a statement from Big Springs' executive leadership.

"We're going to own this," said Jean Schaefer, spokesperson for the VA's southwest region.

The VA has been under fire for more than a year for long wait times that have imperiled the health of veterans. VA administrators have been suspended and reprimanded for failing to keep accurate track of wait times and other failings, even as some hospital executives received bonuses. In some cases, long wait times have been linked personnel shortages, and a lack of doctors, nurses and other specialists.

Schaefer said the West Texas system lacked "internal controls" on updating vacancy information in its program, and had "insufficient oversight on data maintenance." In one case, a vacancy for a nursing position was duplicated dozens of times in the system, throwing the figures off.

The correct rate, updated figures show, puts vacancies in West Texas at 22.3% -- still in the highest third of all VA health care systems, but far from the worst case. Eight VA regions had vacancy rates above 30%, many of which were confirmed independently by USA TODAY reporters.

Nationally there were more than 40,000 unfilled medical positions as of July, the agency confirmed. In addition, 5,000 physicians and more than 12,000 nurses were needed, for a 17.4% vacancy rate overall.

West Texas did not respond in August when a USA TODAY reporter called the facility to ask about its unusually high rate. The center currently has no one authorized as spokesperson.

Schaefer said the West Texas system has "tightened up our processes for answering media queries."

The system is one of the smaller networks within the VA, handling roughly 155,000 outpatient visits annually. It has 425 medical jobs, 95 of which were vacant as of August 25.

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