How Do VA Employee's Perspective Affecting Veterans?

The VHA scheme presents an issue when it comes to highly rural veterans since only half of the Highly Rural enrollees reside within an hour of primary care. Approximately 70% of rural veterans still have to travel for more than two hours in order to get to acute care facilities and more than four hours to obtain tertiary care (West et al).

However, he Veterans for America have taken to a less popular choice. Instead of completely doing away with the VA, the Veterans for America request a change in them instead. The priorities have been sorted in a list of ten that also serve as instructions. First off is the rule that veterans must come first, not the VA. This is the most important rule. They believe that the care and funding of veteran health should be the first priority. The second priority refocuses on veteran service for those with disabilities and specialized needs. The third is the improvement of the VA, or more specifically the improvement of how the VA work-such as dealing with the timing and quality of care. The fourth and fifth priorities deals with the allowing of choice concerning from who and where the veterans receive their health care from. They believe the veteran has a right to choose. Following suit, the sixth, seventh, and eighth priorities again drills upon the Veteran Affairs by suggesting reform on thing such as the possibilities of health care on their budget, veterans’ demographics, and the cycle of their ‘standard operating procedures.’ They also note that the reform of such things will require bipartisan vision, courage, and commitment-to which they state in their ninth priority and how to implement it. The tenth -but by far not the least important-priority is to hold the VA accountable for all

All elements in this domain scored a five. The VHA focuses on diversity and disparities among Veterans. The comprehensive electronic health record captures demographic information, such as race, ethnicity, language on the initial visit to the facility. This information can then be viewed in the first pane of the patient chart. Although English is the primary language, an interpreter can be made available if necessary. Those patients who are hearing impaired are provided with an interpreter fluent in sign language. Multiple programs are available to Veterans who are underserved. A series of questions are reviewed with the patient annually, with the goal of identifying the Veteran’s needs. These questions focus on routine health care, as well

What is the VA responsible for? What are the key issues facing the VA health system

By forming these strong interpersonal relationships and working with the VSO’s I was frequently able to obtain information, support, or concurrence that would allow me to resolve a Veteran’s claim. After moving into various management positions within the Veterans Service Center (VSC) I continued to work towards building and maintaining effective and productive relationships with these and other organizations in order to further the goals and interests of the VSC. I accomplished this by participating in outreach events, focusing on improving relations with the RO’s VHA partners, and by focusing on providing timely responses to requests for information from partners to include, VHA, VSO’s and exam

Approximately 2.8 million VA patients are affected by a service related injury with 1,027,000 or 36% of them coming from rural areas. Many of the vets living in rural areas do not get the help they need and are entitled to due to barriers to healthcare with the main barrier being the distance to the nearest VHA facility. This can cause vets to seek more expensive care at non VA

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest health system in the U.S. Their 340,000 employees provide services to approximately 9 million veterans annually (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2014, p. 2). They operate approximately 150 medical centers and 1,400 community and facility-based

Butler, Deputy Director for Health Care, Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division, The American Legion noted that they have tracked staffing shortages across all VA facilities in the U.S. Which has caused communication breakdowns between medical center staff and management to provide care for our veterans. Mr. Butler cited that the American Legion supports section 2,3,4,5,8,9,11,14 and 15 of the drafted legislation to improve hiring practices at the VA. However the American Legion has concerns with section 7, citing that the VA has over half of their leadership position held by employees on an “interim” basis. If such positions are only needed on an “interim” basis the American Legion wishes to see these positions removed in order to make room for more qualified professionals on a full time

Many individuals are aware that veterans suffer high unemployment rates compared to members of the general population. However, it is important to consider that their unemployment status is closely related to their status as individuals who are formerly involved in war. Individuals who experience trauma and who are involved in physical fighting are likely to develop physical and mental disorders. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the impact on treatment for interventions for post-war disorders and the employment status of veterans. The primary questions that will be explored in this literature review is “What are the unemployment rates for veterans who have not received treatment interventions for post-war disorders?”

Veteran populations supported by the Veteran Health Administration has a problem when their patients need help that requires counseling. A report produced examining the different problems that exist was produced in April 2012. The Veterans Affairs (VA) was investigated by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) in a report entitled “Review of Veterans’ Access to Mental Health Care.” (Howley, 2014). It was determined that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) does not have a method to track whether patients are provided timely access to mental health services (Office of Inspector General, 2013). VHA failures include neglecting to meet first-time patients with timely mental health evaluations and existing patients often waited more

This growth while beneficial still hasn’t been enough to help meet the needs of all the Veterans seeking VA health care or waiting on their pending enrollment list. A report from The Huffington Post showed that 847,882 veterans are on the pending enrollment list, and out of those 238,657 have died after filing for enrollment and waiting. (Ryan Grim) This information was given to them by Scott Davis, a VA program specialist, who worked at the Health Center in Atlanta. The VA is backed up to the point where every clinic turns away patients everyday some of whom live long distances from these

The Veterans Health Administration is the largest health care system in the U.S., with 92 million visits between 6.4 million patients in 2013. The VA has been blasted in the media lately due to various problems, some would argue that it should be dismantled others reformed. A veteran should not be forced to deal with the political posturing and backbiting that goes along with any bureaucracy. The Veteran Affairs or VA must come to grips with the problems it faces, an insufficient amount of health care workers to handle the increasing number of patient visits, a mismanagement of funds and services, and ineffective, unqualified or just plain poorly trained employees.

The mental health conditions that affect many veterans are concerning. In particular, veterans may face post-traumatic stress disorder or depression as a result of their combat experiences. Though awareness of mental illness is increasing, there is still a stigma surrounding these disorders and those suffering may be hesitant or feel too much shame to reach out for help. In these cases, the disorder may be left untreated, which may

In May of last year, a fifty-one year old Veteran complained of chest pain during an examination, the VA doctor referred him for testing. Unfortunately a month later he died of heart disease and the test had never been scheduled. The test would have shown, the urgent need for medical attention, preventing his untimely death. This is just one of many cases, were the wait time for medical treatment has affected Veterans and their family negatively. The average time for a Veteran to see his primary care provider for the first time, when switching to the Veteran Affairs Healthcare system, is over ninety days. Since the DoD healthcare system uses different processing procedure, than the Veteran Affairs Healthcare system, many patients are unable to get continued healthcare. In many cases the review of the disability claims package takes too long. Even though the Inspector General of the VA has called for a fourteen day target time frame for scheduled appointments, there has been little improvement. During a recent probe it has come to light, that wait times are nationwide falsified. In order to meet the “performance targets”, various administrative techniques concealed the longer wait (Slack).

The way the veteran office serves, judges the quality of Veterans services is in due course its clients. Improving quality through technology, involves the use of services that, when appropriately executed, produce immense settlement. The most direct contribution that information technology can make to humanizing the quality of the veteran services and care, is to put forward healthier information about their case, control the problem at hand, and find alternative tests and treatments for that problem. This would enable veterans to select more effectual services, and avoid potential appalling abhorrence.