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“Despite the lack of data, investigators uncovered lengthy wait times in visits to hospitals throughout the country. At one facility on the Navajo Nation, staff said it can take three to four months for a new patient to get an appointment with an internal medicine specialist and two to three months for internal medicine.
The delays are attributed to lack of physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners throughout the IHS. According to the report, over 1,550 such positions are vacant and 20 percent of physician positions are vacant.
Aging infrastructure and equipment also contribute to long waits, the GAO said. IHS facilities, on average, are much older than those in the private sector and medical and laboratory equipment are long past their useful lifespans, according to the report.
“American Indians and Alaska Natives continue to die at higher rates than other Americans from many causes, including preventable diseases— such as cirrhosis of the liver and lower respiratory infections—that can be mitigated through access to timely primary care services,” the GAO wrote. “Based on our past work, patient wait times have historically been a problem for some IHS facilities—particularly those located in poor, rural areas—but staffing vacancies and aging infrastructure and equipment have created obstacles for facilities working to provide timely primary care.””
– Indianz.com, Indian Health Service faulted for lengthy waits in patient care.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
