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Five hundred and fourteen days. That’s how long it took to get the emergency department at the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center in my home state of Kansas reopened after it was closed in 2013 due to a staffing shortage.
Only after numerous phone calls, letters, meetings and more were we able to navigate through the bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs. For nearly two years, our veterans in Topeka and across Kansas were left without emergency facilities in the face of VA immovability, lacking the care they are owed and deserve.
This is a story told across the country. The VA remains inefficient, unaccountable and completely lacking transparency. One in three veterans seeking VA care have died while waiting, equating to hundreds of thousands of lives.
We promise the brave men and women fighting for our country that if you take care of us, we will take care of you. It’s a unanimous principle nationwide, yet for too many veterans, the sad reality is the VA fails time and again to provide the necessary care.
An unaccountable VA, lost in the bureaucracies of Washington, fails to hold accountable employees who do not perform. Before coming to Congress, I spent 20 years working as a certified public accountant. I knew that if I didn’t do my job well, I could expect consequences. But for too many VA officials, there is no downside to incompetence. Getting the firing process started takes an average of six months to a year — all while veterans continue to suffer the impacts of VA mismanagement.
Read more at ...
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/opinion/2015/07/29/commentary-veterans-deserve-accountable-va/30822629/
Only after numerous phone calls, letters, meetings and more were we able to navigate through the bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs. For nearly two years, our veterans in Topeka and across Kansas were left without emergency facilities in the face of VA immovability, lacking the care they are owed and deserve.
This is a story told across the country. The VA remains inefficient, unaccountable and completely lacking transparency. One in three veterans seeking VA care have died while waiting, equating to hundreds of thousands of lives.
We promise the brave men and women fighting for our country that if you take care of us, we will take care of you. It’s a unanimous principle nationwide, yet for too many veterans, the sad reality is the VA fails time and again to provide the necessary care.
An unaccountable VA, lost in the bureaucracies of Washington, fails to hold accountable employees who do not perform. Before coming to Congress, I spent 20 years working as a certified public accountant. I knew that if I didn’t do my job well, I could expect consequences. But for too many VA officials, there is no downside to incompetence. Getting the firing process started takes an average of six months to a year — all while veterans continue to suffer the impacts of VA mismanagement.
Read more at ...
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/opinion/2015/07/29/commentary-veterans-deserve-accountable-va/30822629/
Posted in these groups: 
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 24
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Rep. Jenkins nails it. We can blame the unions, but that's looking in the wrong direction. The problem is the Civil Service model. It doesn't work because it makes it too damn difficult to remove bad employees. The new act SHOULD help, but after decades of that system, it'll be a slow boat to turn.
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SSG Dwight Amey MSA, MSL, BS, AS
SGT Jeremiah Brookins, I work for the va in topeka. I retired last year from active army, and when I found out union members cannot be supervisors or managers I quickly decided not to join the union. The biggest problem I see in the civil service system is how the cohesive work environment is impossible to accomplish due to the nature of the contentous relationship. Document this conversation and report this evaluation results. I am for fair treatment, but in some instances the heavy man hours devoted to running the unions effects the work load of the rest of the workforce. I am still learning this strange system, because my military values and work ethics do not seem to operate the same.
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Start with the unions. AFGE has many supervisors and administrators I know terrified and it's too hard to fire the usually VETERAN employees who need firing. We're our own worst enemies sometimes. There should be NO unions in public service.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
Unfortunately, we have Unions in Public Service because Politicians cannot be trusted to not replace Civil Servants as administrations change. Unions are a necessary evil and a product of the Democratic Process. They are bred of the system we use.
I'm no fan of unions either, but when you have elected officials who will abuse the Power we grant them, a safeguard has to be built. In this case it was unions.
I'm no fan of unions either, but when you have elected officials who will abuse the Power we grant them, a safeguard has to be built. In this case it was unions.
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GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad it is sad that the solution to short staffing was to just shut down a necessary service. The sad truth is that it seems the VA is getting a desired effect: wait long enough the veterans die and the number problem is solved.
This is a horrible thing for a "grateful nation" to do to those who have answered the call to serve in her military forces. They need to put a group of VETERANS in charge of the VA. Having one person in charge of fixing this disaster is a recipe for disaster in itself. Need to have a board consisting of an odd number so there are no tie votes working together with Veterans to fix this disaster. So the real question is what can we as Veterans do to help get it fixed? Unfortunately, this is such a huge disaster that it may be better to tear out the old system entirely and rebuild it from the ground up. The big problem there is how many more vets have to die before the new system is up an running. With things moving at the speed of government, our grand children will have a better chance of seeing it than anyone now serving. Making it worse is that because of the difficulty involved in actually repairing the VA, they want to slap a band aid on the problem and hope it goes away. This is not going to be a simple fix. The first thing that is needed is exactly what is mentioned in the title ACCOUNTABILITY. Clean house from the top down. If you are not serving your position effectively, you are out. Once the cancer is removed, begin the healing process bring in well vetted people to fill the positions. People who understand that your customers are the brave men and women who have sacrificed for this nation. Change the culture of the VA. Veterans are not a number, they are people. Great people. Set that as your VA culture. Now you have a jumping off point, move forward.
This is a horrible thing for a "grateful nation" to do to those who have answered the call to serve in her military forces. They need to put a group of VETERANS in charge of the VA. Having one person in charge of fixing this disaster is a recipe for disaster in itself. Need to have a board consisting of an odd number so there are no tie votes working together with Veterans to fix this disaster. So the real question is what can we as Veterans do to help get it fixed? Unfortunately, this is such a huge disaster that it may be better to tear out the old system entirely and rebuild it from the ground up. The big problem there is how many more vets have to die before the new system is up an running. With things moving at the speed of government, our grand children will have a better chance of seeing it than anyone now serving. Making it worse is that because of the difficulty involved in actually repairing the VA, they want to slap a band aid on the problem and hope it goes away. This is not going to be a simple fix. The first thing that is needed is exactly what is mentioned in the title ACCOUNTABILITY. Clean house from the top down. If you are not serving your position effectively, you are out. Once the cancer is removed, begin the healing process bring in well vetted people to fill the positions. People who understand that your customers are the brave men and women who have sacrificed for this nation. Change the culture of the VA. Veterans are not a number, they are people. Great people. Set that as your VA culture. Now you have a jumping off point, move forward.
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Too many years of a bureaucracy & people getting comfy appointments. Those same appointments doing nothing but appeasing those that appointed them. Too many others in the office that the work can be pushed off on or blamed for when it all goes wrong.
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There are too many lazy leaders in the VA structure who don't care about those they are charged with serving. It's time to nuke the VA and start over. Perhaps letting vets see their private physicans and having a VA card that covers the cost of services like Medicare might me the way to go.
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There are several reasons why they aren't accountable. One stated herein is on point, although not everyone will agree and that is the point made by MSG(P) Joseph Yorski in that many supervisors, managers and administrators are not adequately trained to understand their union's contract. I had no problems with two separate unions in VA and that I attributed to understanding the union contracts. While there were times that the union and I didn't agree, as long as it was within the contract, it was too bad for them. Another is as SGT Jeremiah Brookins points out, the Civil Service System. From it's inception as a "spoils system" to the formation of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform act, designed to stop the cronyism that was going on at the time, Congress and the Courts have shaped the Civil Service System into an unmanageable beast. These two organizations have inundated supervisors/managers with hoops so high, many supervisors and managers just don't take the time. They hope for the employee or themselves to move on into another job. Compounding the problems is throughout our federal system there are very competent Labor Relation Specialist and very incompetent LRS. What seems to get glorified in the news and courts are those incompetent LRS who erroneously guide supervisors and managers in how to deal with problematic employees.
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The problem is there is a provider shortage in all avenues. I know that we would like to fire your way out of a waiting list, but if you don't have a MD, NP, or PA to see the person then you can't get through a wait list. If the VA is going to reduce the amount of a wait list that they have their going to need to employ measures to increase The population of providers available to the system. Either they need to work to help individuals want to go to medical school, further their nursing education, or going to a physicians assistant program. Or they need to even consider if there is A way that they can create a new provider that may meet the needs of the VA, consider the way that the Army really pioneered the physicians assistant position.
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who is going to make them accountable? The Government. They are the Government. What are they going to do? Slap them with a fine? That's OUR money. Demand answers! What level of accountability could we possibly expect? You cannot blame a single "cog" for a breakdown in a machine, when the machine is built horribly. All you can do is find the section of the machine which currently has the most garbage in it, and hopefully clear it out, and pray other sections don't get gunked up.
Unless we have an "external" organization coming in, and actually slapping the Government, not the VA's hand, and slapping it hard every time one of these problems come to light, then there is no accountability.
How would we do this in the Service? Remove the name VA, and put the name USMC in there, and leave all the problems in place. How would Higher Headquarters react? What would HQMC do? What would Congress or the President do? That's the answer to this problem, but no one wants to accept that answer, because it is too damn simple, pardon my french.
Who is going to make them accountable? The Government. They are the Government. What are they going to do? Slap them with a fine? That's OUR money. Demand answers! What level of accountability could we possibly expect? You cannot blame a single "cog" for a breakdown in a machine, when the machine is built horribly. All you can do is find the section of the machine which currently has the most garbage in it, and hopefully clear it out, and pray other sections don't get gunked up.
Unless we have an "external" organization coming in, and actually slapping the Government, not the VA's hand, and slapping it hard every time one of these problems come to light, then there is no accountability.
How would we do this in the Service? Remove the name VA, and put the name USMC in there, and leave all the problems in place. How would Higher Headquarters react? What would HQMC do? What would Congress or the President do? That's the answer to this problem, but no one wants to accept that answer, because it is too damn simple, pardon my french.
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As I stated I have my Tri Care and Blue Cross but I thought every Veteran was issued a healthcard to seek treatment if none were available in a reasonable amount of time, I have one that came in the mail I just tossed it in the drawer of my desk. Is your Congressman involved? What did the Vets do for 2yrs for health care and prescriptions?
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... because it had a huge political contribution power to some politician.
People don't realize ... big government program? mean big political contribution.
People don't realize ... big government program? mean big political contribution.
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