WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald this week announced a restructuring of the agency to provide more community-based support and a new customer service program following last summer’s scandal over long wait times for veteran health care visits and falsification of records.
The reforms are intended to ensure that veterans receive swift health care.
As part of the new plan announced Monday, McDonald will establish a revamped customer service entity as well as a network of “community veteran advisory councils” to coordinate veteran-related issues with community partners.
In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, McDonald also said he may fire 35 people involved in the scandal and that 1,000 more terminations could follow. But the agency has to follow procedure before any firings can occur, McDonald said in that interview. He also explained the protocol last Thursday at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
During last week’s breakfast, McDonald stressed that though he wants to hold potential wrongdoers accountable, he has to put together a strong case to make the terminations “stick.” Also, any disciplinary actions will come second to a criminal investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice.
“Criminal prosecution has the priority and then the administrative disciplinary action follows,” he said. “Obviously the easiest way to mess up an evidentiary situation is to have multiple people investigating at the same time.”
McDonald said that in an effort to shift the agency’s culture, he’s held meetings with all VA employees, emphasizing his appreciation for whistleblowers and the need for all workers to be critical of the agency’s operations.
Also at Thursday’s breakfast, McDonald addressed the rollout of veteran Choice Cards, a temporary benefit that allows eligible veterans to go outside of the VA hospital network for health care if they’ve had to wait too long for an appointment or reside too far from an agency clinic. Because the law requiring the cards specifies that all cards must be distributed no later than Thursday, critics have questioned the VA’s decision to mail the cards in three phases.
But the secretary said that mailing them all at once would have been too chaotic.
“All of us were fearful that if we sent nine million cards out, that we would create chaos amongst our veteran population, and that our veteran population would wonder why they’re receiving a card and they would have trouble sorting through the directions,” McDonald explained.
The first phase was rolled out last Wednesday.
McDonald, who served in the army before climbing the ranks to become CEO of Proctor & Gamble, took over the agency three months ago. He replaced Eric Shinseki, who resigned in the wake of the scandal.
Over the past four months, the national new patient primary care wait time has been reduced by 18 percent, according to the agency. Further, 98 percent of appointments have been completed within 30 days of the veteran’s preferred fate, or the date determined to be medically necessary by a physician.
