VA Claims of “New Leadership” Under Scrutiny CPT (r) Tyler Merritt October 31, 2016 Veteran Inspired 11 Breaking last week, USA Today uncovered an unfortunate turn of events in the Department of Veterans Affairs. This one is completely unacceptable. Back in 2014, VA Secretary Bob McDonald claimed that 90 percent of of the VA’s medical centers had new leadership or new leadership teams. This was amid the controversial discovery that many veterans had died while waiting for treatment appointments at VA facilities all over the nation. According to its investigation, USA Today discovered that only eight people in these leadership teams throughout the nation are new employees. So where did the rest of these teams come from? They were simply shuffled around the system. Effectively, this means that the 90 percent figure is a complete misrepresentation of the facts at hand. Effectively, the Department of Veterans Affairs has simply shuffled personnel around and called them “new”. How This All Happened From the VA’s own regulations and guidelines, it considers leadership to be “new” if a single member of a leadership team is replaced. This is a fairly understandable practice in theory, as Secretary McDonald has said that “In some cases, you’ve got directors who are doing a great job, but they’ve got a chief of staff who’s not and you’ve got to change that person.” It’s true that a few bad apples are all it takes to “spoil the bunch,” but in this case, there are only eight new hires in this entire process. Most of the public would acknowledge a “shakeup” to be when critical people are not just removed from certain tasks, but rather removed from the organization itself — or at the very least demoted from senior leadership positions. But as it stands, this isn’t really an option for the VA due to strict federal regulations regarding the hiring and firing of employees. To date, only seven medical directors have been terminated from VA employment, with one quitting and one retiring before any action was taken. There are 22 instances in which the VA simply moved a director from one facility to another. This means that there was no actual accountability taken of these individuals’ performances. From the “bad apples” metaphor, if you move those bad apples from one bunch to another, all of the apples will be ruined. Unacceptable Actions The USA Today investigation detailed five instances in which directors were simply shifted around where those directors in question had extremely poor performance ratings. The behavior detailed includes actions such as lying repeatedly about shifting funds to overcome budget cuts. In still yet another, the director of one facility that participated in regular patient scheduling manipulation to cover poor performance was simply moved to another facility. The instances in full are infuriating to those who have ever had to deal with the VA. VA Undersecretary of Health David Shulkin said that there hadn’t been enough applicants to fill all of the openings caused by the vast exodus of VA leadership. In fact, to this day there are still 12 positions open for facility director. The Chicken and Egg Funding Problem One of the enormous issues at hand is that the VA is drastically underfunded for what it needs. Budget-conscious politicians have been cutting everywhere. Unfortunately, some of those budget cuts have found their way into the VA’s own budget. It’s an important element of the story to mention the role that lawmakers have had in the VA’s operating budget. In fact, Secretary McDonald criticized congressional cuts to VA services earlier this year which amounted to $1.5 billion. House lawmakers have been frustrated with the VA’s performance. This creates a “chicken and egg” paradox of “which comes first?” According to House lawmakers, they don’t want to authorize more money for the VA until it cleans up its act. But according to Secretary McDonald, funding is essential in order to clean up the VA. Meanwhile, veterans and their lack of healthcare are left in the wake.
