VA Internal Organizations to Realign Their Existing Structures

With the much needed infusion of funding by Congress, through the finally passed Veterans Health Care Bill, the Veterans Administration can continue towards it's goal of rebuilding the Agency towards what the Country served, and promises to those that serve them, should have already built. It would have been saving the Country costs instead of creating, over and over, the same problems, conservative news grabbing 'scandals', that ripple out and create other problems.

Under Gen Shinseki, with much help from this Executive Administration and it's Cabinet which continues, those forward goals were finally being addressed,

February 18, 2011 - Since February 2009, VA has distributed $1.3 billion in Recovery Act funds to modernize medical facilities, make improvements at national cemeteries and award grants to states for Veterans homes. VA has more than 1,100 Recovery funded projects underway or completed in VA medical centers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Nineteen VA medical centers received between $5 million and $20 million for major repairs, renovation or energy conservation initiatives. The impact of these Recovery dollars affects more than 5 million Veterans who receive care in VA health services across the nation. Nearly 70 percent of all Recovery funds have already been paid to various contractors. The balance of funds are currently on contract to complete improvements and modernizations of existing projects. read more>>>

after long being ignored and outright denied. Not just as to the Facilities and National Cemeteries but also the many health, physical and mental, issues from the past decades to the present and especially from our wars.

These new funds are still mostly borrowed, under government deficits with interest on, as no one has yet demanded those served Sacrifice as they demand those serving them and families of must, DeJa-Vu all over again.

Sen. Bernie Sanders told Conservatives: “If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, than don’t go war. These people are bearing the brunt of what war is about, We have a moral obligation to support them.” February, 26th, 2014

VA Announces Single Regional Framework under MyVA Initiative

Washington – January 26, 2015 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced that it is taking the first steps under the MyVA initiative to realign its many organizational maps into one map with five regions to better serve Veterans.

The new regions under the MyVA alignment will allow VA to begin the process of integrating disparate organizational boundaries into a single regional framework to enhance internal coordination.

“We want every Veteran to have a seamless, integrated, and responsive VA customer service experience every time. This regional alignment is the first step in empowering Veterans to interact with one VA – MyVA,” said Secretary Robert McDonald. “Ultimately, this reform will improve the Veteran experience by enabling Veterans to more easily navigate VA and access their earned care and benefits.”

VA’s new regional design utilizes state boundaries to divide the country into five regions. Each organization within VA will begin work to ensure their structures are aligned within this framework by the end of June 2015. read more>>>

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

A New and Improved VA Prescription Label

January 26, 2015 - VA asked hundreds of Veterans to tell us what they liked and didn’t like about the labels on their prescriptions.

We heard you. The results led to this new patient-centric prescription label.

We’ve cleaned up the look and made the following changes:

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Here’s a little more background:

Looking at the period from 2000 to 2011, pharmacists from VA’s National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) identified 1,900 medication safety incidents in which a Veteran may not have understood their prescription label.

Over 400 Veterans and 700 VA pharmacy staff participated in a national study to better understand why this was occurring. NCPS in conjunction with Pharmacy Benefits Management Services conducted this study to identify ways to redesign the prescription label that would support Veterans’ preferences and enhance their understanding of important drug information. read more>>>

Neither of these recent wars have yet been paid for, nor the continued blowback from the spread and growth from the policies implemented!

Neither the long term results from, including the long ignored or outright denied existence of, till this Administrations Cabinet and Gen Shinseki, only Government branch consistent for the past six years, Veterans issues from!

As well as under deficits most of the, grossly under funded for decades and the wars from now, VA budget is still borrowed, with interest, thus added problem creating costs, with representative who control the purse strings blaming the mostly dedicated VA personal within, that shouldn't exist!

Chris Hayes MSNBC: "If you can run a deficit to go to war, you can run a deficit to take care of the people who fought it" In response to Republican opposition to expanding Veterans' benefits on fiscal grounds

Fact: "If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too — not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013