12.08.04
VA Reports Performance Improvements in 2004

The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) FY 2004 Annual Performance and Accountability Report, submitted Nov. 15 to the President and the Congress, confirms that VA is delivering high-quality health care, benefits and memorial services to the nation's veterans. VA achieved an unqualified "clean" audit opinion on its financial statements for the sixth consecutive year. This is the best result an agency can receive from an independent auditor. The number of veterans using VA's health care system has risen dramatically in recent years, increasing from 3.8 million in FY 2000 to 5.1 million in FY 2004. Despite this significant increase in workload, VA continues to receive high satisfaction ratings among its patients with scores of 84 percent for inpatients and 83 percent for outpatients. Ninety-four percent of primary care patients and 93 percent of specialty care patients were able to schedule an appointment within 30 days of their desired date. Both of these results represent improvement from 2003 despite greater demand on VA's medical staff. For more information, VA's FY 2004 Annual Performance and Accountability Report can be found on the Internet at www.va.gov/budget/report.