The time veterans in Hawaii waited for their first appointment to see a primary care physician dropped to an average of 109 days from 145 days in mid-May, but the local waiting times are still the worst in the nation, new Department of Veterans Affairs data released Thursday show.

The next-worst waiting times are those in Fayetteville, N.C., with 93 days on average.

A national scandal over long VA waiting times and secret waiting lists led to the May 30 resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, a Kauai native and former Army chief of staff.

Wayne Pfeffer, director of the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System, said June 16 that he hoped to reduce the wait time for new patients to just 30 days within three months.

The drop to 109 days reflects an average between the long waiting times for some veterans and "a large number of veterans that are being seen within 30 days," officials with the Pacific health care system said.

"So (while) the number is going down, it’s not going down as fast as we would like, quite honestly," the officials said by telephone. "But it’s movement in the right direction, and it’s indicative of the things that we’ve put in place to get the veterans in and get them seen."

Pfeffer’s 30-day goal is "something we’re working towards," officials said.

"Everything indicates that we’re well on the way to making that goal," they said.

The VA released its bimonthly data update Thursday showing what it said was progress on efforts to accelerate access to health care for veterans who have been waiting for appointments.

The data reflect services in Hawaii and in Guam and American Samoa. How the Pacific Islands system came to have the worst wait times in the nation remained unclear.

Officials Thursday deferred to Pfeffer, who was on vacation.

Craig Oswald, facility strategic planner for the VA here, and Scott Hallmark, administrative officer to the chief of staff for the Pacific system, said a "battle plan" was crafted to address shortfalls.

"We realized all the way back in February that we had to kind of fix this thing, that it was just out of control, and so the director made some early moves," the officials said. "He hired a new chief of primary care and really started to put a lot of energy and focus on working the (electronic waiting list) down and getting the veterans service and off the waitlist."

The electronic waiting list represents veterans whom the Pacific system has contacted and who are on a waiting list to receive an appointment, the VA said.

The report released Thursday by the VA shows new enrollee appointment requests at 762 for the Pacific, but officials here said the number was from June 15, and as of Thursday appointment requests were at 21, meaning cases are being processed faster.

Additionally, although the new report said 569 were on the electronic waiting list, again reflecting June 15 data, 331 were actually on that list as of Thursday, officials said.

"Progress is continuing to be made," Hallmark said. "We’ve really produced some results that we’re happy with. We know there’s a lot more to do. The (electronic waitlist) is still way too high, and we’re working to get that down."