STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- A growing scandal over the manipulation of health care appointments resulted in an employee at a Wyoming clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs being placed on administrative leave, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said Friday.
An e-mail allegedly written by an employee in Cheyenne, obtained by CNN, says: "Yes, it is gaming the system a bit. But you have to know the rules of the game you are playing, and when we exceed the 14-day measure, the front office gets very upset, which doesn't help us. Let me know if this doesn't make sense."
The Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman who says she supplied the e-mail to investigators told CNN in an exclusive interview that employees were told to "game the system because it made Cheyenne look good." CNN confirmed with investigators that she was the source of the e-mail.
The e-mail outlined ways employees could manipulate the system to hide the fact that veterans had to wait months for appointments, said Lisa Lee, a scheduler at the VA clinic in Fort Collins, Colorado, which is managed by the Wyoming clinic.
"We were sat down by our supervisor ... and he showed us exactly how to schedule so it looked like it was within that 14-day period," Lee told CNN. "They would keep track of schedulers who were complying and getting 100 percent of that 14 day(s) and those of us who were not."
The VA's official policy is that all patients should be able to see a doctor, dentist or some other medical professional within 14 days of their requested/preferred date. Any wait longer than two weeks is supposed to documented. But many veterans end up waiting longer, and the delays are never reported, veterans and their advocates say.
Shinseki released a statement saying he has ordered an investigation by the inspector general, and that the employee be removed immediately from patient care responsibilities and placed on leave.
"VA takes any allegations about patient care or employee misconduct very seriously," Shinseki said. "If true, the behavior outlined in the email is unacceptable."
Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, which subpoenaed Shinseki to testify next week, said in a statement that "the VA's reaction to the latest development in its delays in care scandal is faux outrage at its finest."
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