Earlier this week, I spent a coupla afternoons listening to proposals from VA rank-and-file employees. They were all very dedicated to much better supporting their customers, veterans of wars including Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, WW II.
Each one of them was also committing to providing better customer service, and had great ideas, but no one in leadership was listening, until now.
Here's my take in more detail, as I wrote it for myself while sleepless coupla nights ago.
- VA rank and file are dedicated in a major way to better supporting vets
- They know how to do much better, including fixing processes and cutting need for red tape.
- They didn't have a way to get it done, until ...
- Now ... they have the means to get heard, online, and leadership is committed to hearing them and to really doing something about it
- Process improvements and red-tape-cutting has already started.
Since I'm no VA expert,and not sure what I can disclose, I'd speak generically about two "easy" efforts.
6. if a vet already got checked out by a trustworthy private doctor, no need to send to a VA doc. No value, takes a lot longer to serve the vet, wastes times and money.
7. if filling out a form takes a lot of work, and actually doesn't accomplish doing anything, stop doing that.
My hidden agenda... I've been spending a lot of time with workers from a bunch of agencies across Washington and across the US. What I say here applies only everywhere.
So, I'm already nudging, mostly quietly, to the next step.
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I would like to give you a couple of my observations as a 100% disabled vet who uses the VA as my primary care giver.
My hospital is very modern, it has a world class medical records system, and it is equipped with top notch MRI and CTScan machines. Our labs are top notch. The VA will send out for testing when needed, they will send their patients out to local specialists when they need one, and they have career people on their staff who are more committed to service with the VA than civilian MDs and nurses. My VA hospital is not perfect, but it is a highly efficient medical facility. The Vets can go to other VA hospitals when they feel they can get better care there. You can change physicians easily.
Second, I can little difference between scheduling at my VA facility and the local civilian hospitals. Most MDs and surgeons have a small backlog of patients waiting to be seen. This is not the fault of the VA or the local hospitals, it is the fault of the medical and nursing professions. They intentionally keep the number of their practitioners low.
Most Vets I know rate our VA care very high. Most of us are very pleased with our physicians and nurses and physical therapists. While not perfect, my facility is a superb government run form of health care.
Thanks for your support of the VA system.