Veterans Swot Analysis

to the Veterans who have served our country. As the organization moves forward they envision

While the VA has a noble cause it has been met with multiple leadership scandals over the past few years. The first scandal erupted with the discovery of an unofficial appointment waitlist at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ in 2013. More scandals followed, most recently ending with the departure of the last confirmed VA secretary. These scandals presented major leadership issues within the VA.

During the year of 2014 the VA experienced the largest scandal in the past 20 years. The Phoenix, Arizona VA was revealed to have extremely long wait times for the Veterans to receive care. This news led to the Director of the Phoenix VA being accused of

Veterans Affairs is infamous for corruption and public scandals, yet have high rankings of overall patient satisfaction from outside reports. The Congressional Research Service estimates that there are about 21 million veterans in the United States and only 9 million veterans are enrolled in the VA. Only 5 million veterans actually received care during 2014’s fiscal year. “In a given year, not every VA-enrolled veteran receives VA health care services. Some veterans may opt not to seek care during the year, while others may receive care outside the VA system, paying for care using private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, the military health system”

A major scandal arose out of Phoenix, Arizona in 2014 that led to many investigations finding that as many as forty patients died while waiting for care at a local VA hospital. (O’Donnel) And since then, there have not been many signs of improvement, In Arizona as well as the rest of the United States United States, on the wait time scandal. Despite billions of dollars and many calls of reform, investigations still show that that some VA facilities still struggle with bettering the wait times for their patients, leading to more death and late diagnoses. Reports conclude that there are over 500,000 cases of extended wait times, including delays longer than 30 days and being put on a waiting list just for an available appointment.

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system that provides essential financial and medical assistance to veterans and their families that are located all over the world. (www.va.gov) As the country and the military’s needs change, the VA needs to continue to evolve and grow. With this thought in mind, it is necessary to understand how the department is coping with the many different challenges that they are currently facing to effectively address the current issues and policy pitfalls. The most critical issues presently facing the VA, is the concern over long increasing wait-times and backlogs for services, which have emerged since 9/11 and are primarily the result of the growing

Since there is no reported data or analyses to help the nation or specific regions and communities assess veterans’ needs for services by geographic area, and to plan for and coordinate service delivery across community-based, TRICARE, and VHA resources; we purpose several general directions for moving forward (Burnam et. al, 2009). The general directions for moving forward include a need for confidentiality, consumer education, treatment choices, workforce policy, training and certification, QI needs, and technical assistance to the

In 1917, as the United States entered World War I, Congress established a system that addressed Veterans benefits which included programs for disability compensation, insurance for service members and Veterans as well as rehabilitative treatments for those that were disabled (www.va.gov). Three years later, 3 separate federal agencies: the Veterans Bureau, Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department and National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers were charged with administering these benefits and services (www.va.gov). Then, in 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed an Executive Order which consolidated these agencies to a federal administration level and created the Veterans Administration (www.va.gov). Almost seventy years later, in 1989, the Veterans Administration was then renamed the Department of Veterans Affairs (www.va.gov). The purpose for establishing the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) has always been, since inception, and remains to this day, to provide a comprehensive system of assistance for Veterans (www.va.gov). As noble a purpose as the VA was intended, the VA could not escape the bureaucratic dysfunction that has rocked the very core of the military community, the nation and the Western allies with outrage and an immediate call for remedy.

Dept. of VA, 2014). The Department of Veterans Affairs core values is, “Core values describe an organization’s culture and character and serve as the foundation for the way individuals in an organization interact with each other and with people outside of the organization. The Department of Veterans Affairs Core Values and Characteristics apply across the entire VA enterprise” (U.S Dept. of VA, 2014). The Veterans must have serve during a war or conflict such as World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, the Gulf War, which includes the Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) as well as Veterans intervening peacetime operations (U.S. Dept. of VA, 2014). The VA is the second largest department of the federal government and the Veterans Health Administration is known to be the largest integrated health care system in America, but faces complex challenges. Due to the impacted health care delivery system in supporting the Veterans in their time after service, the VHA neglected their duties, manipulated their records and reports for financial gain, and allowed Veterans to experience long health care delays, which increased the mortality and morbidity rates.

The VA System needs a complete over all we are doing a terrible disservices to our veteran’s.

Over the past 15 years, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) has seen a dramatic increase in the average degree of disability, growth in the number of compensation recipients, a rise in the number of medical issues claimed and an increased level of complexity of claimed issues. To illustrate this point, prior to the September 2011 terrorist attacks, 333,700 Veterans received compensation at the 70-100 percent level; however, these figures rose to over 1.1 million by the end of 2013. Additionally, since 2009, VA’s disability compensation workload rose 132 percent. This is in large part due to an unprecedented demand resulting from over a decade of war, military downsizing, economic issues, increased outreach, the addition of presumptive conditions and an aging Veteran population.

One of the most serious problems facing all veterans today is the lack of proper healthcare. Soldiers, sailors and airmen are leaving active duty without having proper healthcare to cover their physical or mental injuries. The department responsible for veteran’s healthcare is the Department of Veterans Affairs. (VA) According to The department of Veterans Affairs website, “The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is responsible for administering programs of veterans’ benefits for veterans, their families, and survivors. The benefits provided include disability compensation, pension, education, home loans, life insurance, vocational

Veterans Administration is a bad thing around america, because the veterans are being treated like crap and don 't get enough attention that they need.

According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, there are more than 1,500 locations to receive treatment and care across the country, which divides up to approximately 30 locations per state. The lack of locations may limit some veterans from receiving the care they desire. “Veterans who utilize VA services have worse health status that the general population” (Nelson, Taylor, Lurie, Escarce, McFarland, & Finn, 2011). This implies that the services offered are not sufficient enough to meet the needs of veterans. According to Jack Downing, President and CEO of Soldier On, “Seventy percent of veterans drive twenty-five miles or more to a VA facility.” These facts prove that we need more access for veterans so that they can get the

Service Delivery – VA provides a broad range of the quality and accessibility of primary care, specialized care, related medical and social benefits through a nationwide network for Veterans and their eligible beneficiaries, such as vocational rehabilitation, service members' group life insurance, traumatic injury protection, the Post-9/11 GI-Bill, the VA home loan programs, and