Veterans Affairs officials claimed improvements at 66 percent of their medical centers across the country last fiscal year, with 18 earning the highest level of excellence in the department’s internal ratings system.
But nine others remain on the VA’s list of underperforming facilities after getting the lowest possible rating. They include the embattled Washington VA Medical Center, which sits just a few miles from the White House and has seen a series of leadership shake-ups in recent years.
The VA ratings — made public in 2016 after a USA Today report on the internal scorecards — grade each of the locations on metrics like patient mortality, patient length of stay, reported accidents and patient satisfaction. Officials have said the system is used to collect best practices from high-performing facilities to use in underperforming ones.
Just two months into his tenure leading VA, the new secretary promised significant culture changes for the department.
“With closer monitoring and increased medical center leadership and support, we have seen solid improvements at most of our facilities,” he said. “Even our highest performing facilities are getting better, and that is driving up our quality standards across the country.”
The five others — Washington, Phoenix and Tucson in Arizona, Montgomery in Alabama, and Atlanta in Georgia — saw no overall change.
Earlier this year, VA placed 12 medical centers on a high-risk list for “aggressive” management intervention. Of those, eight were removed from the program after showing sufficient improvement by the end of last month.
Wilkie said while he is pleased with the results thus far “there’s no doubt that there’s still plenty of work to do.”
The full ratings list is available on the VA web site.
Tuskegee is part of the Montgomery system.
No surprise here.
Phoenix is a Shithole. I’m not sure what is worse their medical indifference and dangerous care or the bureaucratic obstructionism.
The biggest part of the problem is the medical staff know they can’t be held accountable for killing people and the bureaucrats can’t be fired.
I can concur about Togus, Maine’s VA hospital being listed as #1, with a 5-star rating. It’s an amazing place, where folks go out of their way to help veterans.
For me, it’s a blessing to be able to go there for treatment(s).
I used to go there until I moved far enough away so I didn’t have to.
Glad to see it has improved.
They had a nasty LEO shooting of a vet many years ago.
I find it rather “interesting” that not a single medical center had a decline in the quality of care they offer.
I am throwing the bullshit flag too.
Go to “VA HEALTH CARE FACILITY BY VISN” to find your VISN. Click on your parent hospital and go from there. We scored a 2, which is generous. If it were scored only based on the administrative staff, it would have received a 1. The VA needs to turn many/most of its functions over to local civilian hospitals, or sell the facilities to national health care companies. Sit back and watch care improve. At a minimum, the phones will be answered.
Personally, Bath, NY (of all states) is the best care I have ever received along with having satellite facilities in Pennsylvania closer-by in Tioga County, PA where I reside.
Wilkes-Barre, PA on the other hand is a shit hole and everything wrong with the loose tolerance of the entire VA program.
One more for comparison sake in short terms:
Bath’s installation looks and feels like an Academy while Wilkes-Barre looks and feels like MEPS. Ok, I’m done picking low hanging fruit.
For those who have a shitty VA please consider moving to my neck of the woods. Our gun laws are almost limited to Federal level and no further plus I can shoot in my back yard if you need incentive.
Had a friend that went to Bath for years and loved it, then moved to Phoenix, and not so much. I used to do military funerals at Bath back a few years ago – the director attended every one I did.
Little Rock’s Central Arkansas Health Care System received a 3 – about right. I know the director of about a year and in a private conversation I suggested she make her staff get out of their window offices outside her door and practice management by walking around. That was after I waited an hour past a specific appointment with a specific doctor, unnoticed, then a sub showed up. She is dedicated to providing better service but as long as the VA has people trading time for money or sitting on their asses at their computer, things will not improve. I inherited enough clubs during my time with the same problems and you would be surprised what firing a worthless manager or two or department head does to shape up the rest of the staff.
I talked to a healthcare company last month and I asked the Director, “How many site visits do you do?” and he couldn’t tell me because it was so long ago since his last one. He had organizations spread across a few counties but wasn’t getting out of his office at all.
Some of the simplest military concepts can be so beneficial to other Federal organizations and/or civilian companies, IF they want to enact them.
At least 4 or 5 times a day I get up out of my chair and walk around to other people’s offices. It is beneficial for everyone to do that.
This spot is the best fit I could find for this article which I feel should be read by those receiving VA health care. I have mixed feelings. I have long been displeased on occasion with VA care. Also, I have insight into the bureaucracy of the VA and the apathy of many (most ?) of the administrative staff, as I worked 11 years for the VA in a variety of positions. Unfortunately or not, it is necessary to fight (?) through the administrative staff (clerks, patient advocate, baseline workers) to get to the true professionals. I have been pleased with the overall quality of care I receive once past the Great Wall of Clerks. Anyway, this is long but bears reading, IMO.
I worked two VAs, being a plank owner at both. One was stellar; one sucked. The saying goes that ‘the VA is not the VA is not the VA’ meaning attitudes and care varies greatly among the many facilities.
Veterans Sustain Two Serious Defeats From Trump And The House To VA Health Care
Charles Tiefer
Charles Tiefer
Contributor
i
Washington
I cover government contracting, the Pentagon and Congress.
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 06: U.S. President Donald Trump holds up the Veterans Affairs Mission Act he signed June 6, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Veterans face two separate challenges to the VA that have come to a boil this week – one from Trump, one from the Republican House.
One concerns Trump and the makeup of a commission focused on closing VA facilities. The other concerns transferring funding of veterans’ healthcare from VA facilities to private entities.
On Wednesday, Trump signed a law with a provision to establish a commission charged with conducting a nationwide “asset review” of VA infrastructure. If the commission is stacked with advocates of dismantling the VA and privatizing most care, the results could be disastrous. Congress remembers the great power of the base-closing commissions in shutting down military facilities, but at least they were able to vote the recommendations up or down. Not so with this commission; it will be empowered to make final decisions. There are likely to be regional winners and losers, and some decisions may be made to accommodate real estate developers, not veterans.
The make-up of the commission had been a sticking point with veterans groups and lawmakers concerned about the facilities-closing review. In the statute written by Congress, it was required that several members come from traditional veterans service organizations, as well as a private-sector health care administrator, a senior government official with medical management experience, and an asset management expert. No representative of the VA’s own workforce will be included.
The composition of the commission is crucial for Congress because they are handing over tremendous responsibility and authority. In a statement by Trump just hours after signing the bill into law, he limited what he would do to consult with lawmakers in appointing members of an asset review commission. Just consult. He said he will “welcome their input” but says final decisions on who will be on the panel will remain with him. Say hello to the Koch-created Concerned Veterans for America, the major organization demanding privatization no matter what the cost, financial or otherwise.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
FORBES INSIGHTS
How Blockchain May Impact Logistics, Supply Chain And Transportation: A Conversation With The Blockchain In Transport Alliance
Capital One BRANDVOICE
New Haven-Style Pizza: Is It America’s Best?
Oracle BRANDVOICE
Brazilian Retailer’s New Commerce Platform In Step With ‘Fast Fashion’
This is worrisome. If Congress trusted Trump to make sound choices, it would not have written the law the way it did. This is not like appointing officials with executive powers. A facilities closing commission reports to Congress for action. Trump should not be free to make it the Koch Commission.
The second challenge came in a House appropriation bill. The House voted on Thursday to approve the rule for floor debate of an appropriation (the Military Construction – VA bill) to be adopted Friday. That rule for the debate dealt with the problem that Veterans Choice Program, to the vehicle for privatizing veterans health care, continues to burn through billions of dollars. It dealt with the problem by tossing in an extra $1.1 billion.
The money going into privatized care is not free. Quite clearly, the conservative forces in Congress want to switch priority for veterans’ care funding from VA facilities to private facilities. When more is lavished on private care, less is available for maintaining the quality of VA facilities. It facilitates a vicious circle of underfunding VA and using the resulting problems and shortfalls as a rationale for privatization.
It is not a coincidence that both of these challenges to VA care occurred the same week. There is a conservative agenda on this subject. Stacking a facilities-closing commission with enthusiasts for shutting down veterans care in areas like the North and East is part of that agenda. Putting appropriations to use on private health care, not VA facilities, is part of the same agenda. What is happening now is materially advancing that agenda.
A third development warrants noting. This week, administration official circulated a memo to Hill staffers opposing a Senate plan which would raise non-defense spending caps in coming years to cover the cost of new VA activity. The White House argues, instead, that money should come from cuts elsewhere in the federal bureaucracy, and the caps should stay in place. But, this is part of the same agenda. Important and valuable government programs, like the VA, would be cut, so that the money can be diverted to private health care institutions.
For people concerned about maintaining viable public veterans’ health care, it has been a disheartening week.
I have been working for the VA for a year this month. As a low level clerk for a CBOC with a patient/Veteran load of nearly 5000. As most know I also served 26 years in the Army and I’ve been a VSO with the American Legion and VFW for nearly 20 years now.
Here are my take aways from the year I’ve worked for the VA
1. The IT systems are fucking archaic. I have to keep 16 different systems/programs open constantly and have to use nearly 30 systems to do my job of scheduling and managing appointments.
There are two main programs that act as the hub. The first being CPRS which is your healthcare record and the second is VISTA the scheduling system. CPRS is archaic but interacts with DODs system which is equally archaic. VISTA is dos based if that gives you any indication.
Every other program is a patch that addresses some other shortcoming in the two main systems – CPRS and VISTA
There is a LOT of room for human error as you can imagine
Another thing that drives me up the wall is that there is no “task tracking” system.
What I mean by that is tracking a given task from cradle to grave.
I’ll use Amazon as an example. There is a myriad of things that happen from the time you order a book, for example, until that book arrives in your hands. Every single step in that process is totally tracked.
There is NOTHING similar available to us. Which means humans have to follow through if anything is to get done.
This alone, in my opinion, is the single biggest reason that people fall through the cracks in the VA. As I tell every Veteran. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Which is true with the system we now have.
2. Veterans. Those guys you had on active duty that were shit bag 18 and 19 year old Privates? Well they turn into 60 and 70 year old shit bag Privates.
And I’ve found that just like active duty you spend 90% of your time dealing with 10% of your people that are fuck ups.
Which takes away from the time you can spend taking care of everyone else.
I could add more but I’ll end here for now
I concur with your observations O-4E. I spent the last four years of my federal civil service career working for VA. I experienced those archaic IT systems and multiple software programs. Logging in on my work computer was a frustrating, time consuming adventure. Often, I would have to log out of a system and then return to a software program to continue my casework. And working for the Veterans Benefits Administration often meant our IT systems did not interface with the much larger Veterans Health Administration. VA spends only about 1% of its annual budget on IT modernization whereas a Fortune 500 company spends four times that to stay competitive.
The young shitbags do indeed age into old shitbags. As a caseworker, I met a non-combat veteran in the Community Living Center of a VA hospital who proudly told me that it took him 41 years to finally be declared a 100% permanent and totally disabled veteran. Family members confirmed that this veteran never held a paying job after his brief stint in the Army many decades ago. His mental health issues were probably unrelated to his military service but he was long a squeaky wheel needing grease. Beware of the Blue Falcons!!
As a medical doctor, my experience working in the VA has convinced me that veterans would me much better served if the entire system were closed and the money spent sending vets to the private sector.