DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — An inspection of the Atlanta VA Healthcare System by the VA Inspector General calls infrastructure problems at the DeKalb County facility a “system shock.”
The IG inspected the facility in June 2024 but just published the results of its visit.
Along with problems with the building itself, the IG also highlighted continuing issues with staffing, hiring and problems with answering veterans’ phone calls.
The report says, “Leaders described multiple issues, such as water line breaks that flooded the intensive care unit and radiology clinic, and nonfunctioning air conditioning units. Leaders said plumbing issues and the lack of air conditioning caused staff to reschedule patients’ appointments or convert them to telehealth.”
The IG inspection also references previous Channel 2 Action News Investigates reporting into problems with the Atlanta VA’s phone systems as proof that VA leadership have known about the issue dating to at least a 2021 Channel 2 Action News story.
The report states that “veterans’ primary concerns were related to the phone system, including the lack of available options to leave messages for clinic staff, extended hold times, frequent disconnections, and the absence of direct phone lines to clinics.”
RELATED STORIES:
Jim Lindenmayer is a service officer with the American Legion who has helped patients navigate the Atlanta VA for more than a decade.
“We’ve been doing this for 11 years, and it’s the same issues. The phone doesn’t work, no one’s answering, we can’t hire, we had infrastructure problems,” he said.
The report also quotes the Atlanta VA’s deputy director as saying it takes “approximately 300 days to hire employees.”
“These are basic blocking and tackling issues that any corporation deals with daily,” Lindenmayer said.
In January, Atlanta VA Medical Center Director Kai Mentzer told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray that major progress was being made in answering veteran calls.
Each day his senior staff now reviews the phone call data. He said for the past several months the call abandonment rate has been under 5%.
“This morning, the numbers showed that we were answering the telephones within 12 seconds,” Mentzer said in that interview earlier this year.
The IG report also finds that none of the emergency call boxes in the parking garage are operational.
When Channel 2 Action News checked, we saw the call boxes taped over. Some, but not all, have the number for VA police.
VA leadership tells the IG those call boxes will not be repaired until the beginning of 2026.
The inspector general made seven recommendations. In its response, the Atlanta VA leadership agreed with them all and set timelines to make fixes.
©2025 Cox Media Group
