Legion: VA getting message on employee accountability

The Department of Veterans Affairs has taken substantial, quantifiable action in creating what it calls "an environment of sustainable progress." One of VA's most notable statistics related to accountability is the fact it has fired more than 500 employees since its new secretary, Robert McDonald, took over July 29.

Those fired from VA include three senior executives who oversaw disasters in medical care at VA medical centers in Pittsburgh, Phoenix and Montgomery, Ala. Two other executives chose to resign before they could be fired: John Goldman, director the of Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, Ga., and Susan Taylor, deputy chief procurement officer at the Veterans Health Administration.

Verna Jones, executive director of The American Legion in Washington, said “The firings are an indication that VA is getting the message that it needs to punish wrongdoers with serious consequences. We expect Secretary McDonald to continue dismantling a management culture that, in some areas, had forfeited proper medical treatment for veterans in order to receive financial bonuses.”

VA logged its progress in employee accountability in a recent fact sheet released to the public. Highlighted actions included:

• Over the past six months, 77 percent of its medical facilities have new leadership (permanent or acting).

• About 45 employees have been flagged for disciplinary action related to patient care or data manipulation.

• Working with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, retaliation complaints filed by three whistleblowers at Phoenix VA facility have been resolved.

• An Office of Accountability Review has been set up to ensure that executives will be punished for improprieties related to patient scheduling, access to care or retaliation against whistleblowers.

• More than 8,309 staff members have completed VA-developed training, “Access and Scheduling Core Concepts and Business Practices.”

Jones said VA’s recent actions reflect what could be a new era in the department’s history, “but The American Legion expects far more results. We know that VA has a process it needs to follow, and we want it to follow that process until every single employee who put the lives of veterans at risk is no longer working for VA.”