Lawmakers accused Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki of failing to act on repeated warnings about problems with the veterans health care system, as the embattled secretary vowed to take "all actions necessary" to fix the problems during a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill.
"Any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell," Shinseki said Thursday.
He addressed lawmakers in his first testimony on Capitol Hill since allegations that delayed health care led to patient deaths were made public. Early in the hearing, he faced heated bipartisan criticism that his department is falling down on its vital obligation to care for America's veterans.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- who represents the state where the scandal broke -- said the problems have created a "crisis of confidence."
"We should all be ashamed," said McCain, a Vietnam veteran.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who has called for the secretary's resignation, accused Shinseki of being in "damage control" and not taking the action that is necessary to correct the system.
The scandal at the Phoenix division involved an off-the-books list allegedly kept to conceal long wait times as up to 40 veterans died waiting to get an appointment. Officials were accused of cooking the books to hide the fact that veterans were waiting more than 14 days, the target window.
VA facilities in South Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Washington state have also been linked to delays in patient care or poor oversight. An internal probe of a Colorado clinic found that staff had been instructed to falsify records to cover up delayed care at a Fort Collins facility.
Shinseki has urged officials to wait until an inspector general report is completed, as he orders a separate review, but lawmakers voiced concern that this would only lead to further delays.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the allegations "deeply disturbing." "We need more than good intentions," she said, calling for "decisive action."
A top Republican also questioned when senior leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs learned that lower-level workers were "manipulating wait times" for veterans' health care. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., ranking Republican on the panel, said that the allegations have been surfacing for a while, and information on the problems was available to the secretary a year and a half ago.
"Why were the national audits and statements of concern from the VA only made this month?" he asked, adding that the delayed health care has resulted in "patient harm and patient death."
Shinseki's testimony is the first since the burgeoning scandal broke on allegedly deadly health care delays in the VA system. He is facing calls for his resignation as well as demands that the VA immediately improve the way it treats America's vets.
Shinseki said the controversy "saddens" him. In his written statement, he said the department "must do better."
Under questioning from senators, Shinseki still defended the overall management of the VA, calling it a "good system" and claiming that cases where workers were manipulating wait times "isolated."
Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in his opening statement, urged Shinseki's critics to wait until more details are known, acknowledging the VA health care system has "serious problems" but questioning whether it even has enough resources.
"There has been a little bit of a rush to judgment," he said.
Meanwhile, the chief watchdog for the VA will testify Thursday that it must immediately focus on delivering quality health care in order to save lives.
In prepared remarks obtained by Fox News from a congressional source, VA’s acting Inspector General Richard J. Griffin said: “The unexpected deaths that the OIG continues to report on at VA facilities could be avoided if VA would focus first on its core mission to deliver quality health care.”
The two officials, along with representatives from a host of veteran advocacy groups -- including The American Legion, which has called for Shinseki's resignation -- were testifying before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. The scandal started with allegations of patient deaths due to long wait times at a Phoenix VA medical center, but new reports are emerging almost daily of problems elsewhere.
Shinseki stresses that he has already placed three employees at the Phoenix VA center on leave over the allegations that as many as 40 veterans may have died because of delayed treatment at that hospital. Further, he ordered an inspector general investigation into the matter and a nationwide review into scheduling policy.
Griffin is expected to cite deep flaws in the organizational structure of the VA that need to be fixed. In his prepared remarks, Griffin cites seven recent reports that demonstrate problems hindering the VA’s ability to provide quality health care coverage.
Examples include a September 2013 report on a VA hospital in Columbia, S.C., which found thousands of patients had their appointments for colon cancer screenings delayed. He says it found that more than 50 patients had a delayed diagnosis of colon cancer, and some later died. Another report from October 2013 discusses a facility in Memphis, Tenn., where three patients died due to improper emergency room care.
Griffin will say a review of these and other examples concluded that the VA needs to improve its system for implementing standards nationwide, saying the VA has become a network of hospitals that differ greatly from each other while attempting to accomplish the same goal.
“It is difficult to implement national directives when there are no standard position descriptions or areas of responsibility across the system,” Griffin plans to say.
Griffin says it is time for the VA to conduct a review of its systems to determine if there are changes that can be made to improve.
In discussing the current state of VA health care, Shinseki cites numerous examples of ways he says the VA has improved care over the past five years, including improving and expanding care access, working to end veteran homelessness and improving access to mental health services. He says the VA is actively working to improve patient wait times.
The White House has stood behind Shinseki amid calls for him to resign. President Obama announced Wednesday he is assigning his close adviser Rob Nabors to the VA to work on a review focused on policies for patient safety rules and the scheduling of patient appointments.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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