"Report Finds Health Unit of V.A. Needs Overhaul"

Report Finds Health Unit of V.A. Needs Overhaul

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/us/report-finds-health-unit-of-va-needs-overhaul.html?smid=re-share

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WASHINGTON — The Veterans Health Administration has a corrosive culture that has led to poor management, a history of retaliation toward employees, cumbersome and outdated technology, and a shortage of doctors, nurses and physical space to treat its patients, according to a review presented to President Obama on Friday by one of his top advisers on veterans’ issues.

Mr. Obama called last month for the review of the Veterans Health Administration, a part of the Department of Veterans Affairs, just days before he accepted the resignation of the Veterans Affairs secretary, Eric Shinseki. The review warns that the department’s hospital system is facing a coming surge of new patients from Afghanistan and Iraq that demands an overhaul of the entire system.


“The V.H.A. leadership structure is marked by a lack of responsiveness and an inability to effectively manage or communicate to employees or veterans,” Rob Nabors, Mr. Obama’s deputy chief of staff, said in a summary of his findings. “A corrosive culture has led to personnel problems across the department that are seriously impacting morale, and by extension, the timeliness of health care.”

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Under pressure to handle more patient visits in a shorter period of time — with, in many places, hardly any more doctors — some administrators and scheduling staff members created artifices to obscure or outright hide how long patients were having to wait to see doctors.


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