Acting VA director Pete Dancy talks with Korean War veteran Javier Diaz in the waiting room at the Veteran's Affairs clinic. (MARK LAMBIEEL PASO TIMES)

The immediate goals for the new acting director of the El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System are simple: improve healthcare, increase staff and rebuild the trust between patients and the VA.

Acting El Paso VA director Pete Dancy has been here three weeks, taking over a center that had patient problems similar to most of the VA centers in the country.

In El Paso, veterans seeking a mental health appointment had to wait an average of 60 days, while initial specialty care appointments had an average wait time of 90 days, according to a report by the U.S. Office of Inspector General. The results of the report showed El Paso had some of the longest wait times in the nation for primary patient care, ranking it 123 out of 128 VA health care systems.

Dancy, who is replacing John Mendoza as the director and will hold the position for up to 120 days, met with the media last week to discuss the current state of the veteran health care system in El Paso, his plans to improve it and what veterans can expect in the coming months.

Q: When you took over, what was the state of the El Paso VA healthcare system?

A: I found that from a staff standpoint that we have 800 staff members that are committed to providing excellent care to our veterans. Forty percent of which are veterans themselves. So I think from the standpoint of the foundation, we got a great staff here. As the OIG (U.S. Office of Inspector General) report identified, there are some gaps in terms of access, staffing, etc. I think from the foundation that is what I found when I got here.

Q: What are some of the changes you have planned for the VA system in El Paso?

A: One of the things I did on the first day was identify four focus areas that I wanted the El Paso VA to concentrate on. Those focus areas are access to care, second is patient-centered care, the third area is strengthening veteran and stakeholder trust in the El Paso VA, and the fourth area is continuous readiness. What I have done specifically is I have reached out to our veterans. I just had a veteran focus group today (Friday) with four veterans and basically articulated what those areas were. Plus equally as important, I asked them what their thoughts on the El Paso VA are and they were able to provide that feedback, so I am using that as kind of a baseline to make some changes.

Q: What did they (the four veterans) tell you?

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Q&A: Acting El Paso VA director Pete Dancy discusses plans to improve patient care