Biggest Problem With Va

[broncovet]

I was thinking about this the other day. What is the VA's biggest problem. Certianly in the "top 10"are things like credibility, the backlog, errors, indifference, etc.

But which is the worst problem? IMHO...drum...rolll.....the number one problem at the VA is......

1. The Veteran has no realistic way to "fix" glitches. Dont expect Peggy to do it, and her sister, Iris is also useless, as are your local congressman. Shinseki ignores emails from Vets, as does Brad Mayes. Nope...we just stay in "glitchland" forever until we are homeless or worse.

The BVA should not be a 4 year glitch repair. This is unacceptable. We need to have a hotline to call a real person who can actually fix our problem, and IRIS does not do that. Anyone else? I doubt the Va is listening, and I doubt even more that they care. But at least they could pretend like it this close to an election.

The VA has a way to fix employee glitches in pay. We dont hear about VA employees getting paychecks 1, 2, 5 or even 10 years late. Never. They have a way to fix THOSE errors. But Vets? Nope. Vets are expected to wait..forever...

Edited October 26, 2012 by broncovet

[Teac]

What a very interesting opinion.

Of course, everyone knows what is said about opinions.

Right... and it holds true for your opinion too....

[Papa]

I was always told not to bring up a problem unless you have a solution. I believe the last few years the VA has gotten the funding that ask for, but the VA is still a total mess. Throwing money at the problem is not going to solve this. The VA has been stuck in the Stone Age for too many years, will the technogoly revolution seem to have passed them up. This is not just a current problem, but one that has gone on for many years. It is time to stop selecting political hacks and Generals as head of the VA. We need some one, and a Veteran, that has the experience of running a large, diverse organization like the VA. One that knows what it takes to make it a more technological and streamlined organization. One that knows processes, and how to improve them. We deserve better.

Papa

[broncovet]

Papa

Yep. The obvious "solution" is so easy the VA cant figure it out and tries complicated solutions instead. Someone said when you have a problem try the simplest solution first.

Its like when your car overheats. You dont replace the radiator, replace the headgasket, then check the thermostat. You check the 10 dollar theromostat first, then the $150 radiator, and, lastly the most costly head gasket.

The simple solution is for the VA to open up communications to which, key VA employees have poo pooed based on "I dont have time to talk to Veterans..I have too much work to do."

This attitude would be like if you go to the doctor and can not speak to the doc and tell him what is wrong. So, the Doc says, "Gee, I think you need surgery. Lets open you up and see what is wrong." If you could speak to the Doc, which you cant speak to the rater, you could tell him, "No doc, my innerds are fine. I have arthritis"

By being unable to communicate with the rater, they usually get it wrong. Even a murderer has his day before a judge, and gets a chance to tell his story before the jury. Not Vets. The raters dont have time for us.

Solution: Require raters to call the Vet or his rep. It would take 15 minutes or less. But save hours and hours of appeals. Half the time the VA does not even get the "issue" right...they never did in my case.

[Hollis]

well after working for the Government for 25 years, I can attest that they (the government) does not look for solutions. They look for excuses so they can ask for more money and more worker to even mess it up more. My boss would waste money just to over spend, so he could ask for more in his budget for the next year. I do agree with boncovet, there is a simple solution, but that would make them less important, and we all know they not going to do that, and the Vets contiue to suffer at the RO ego. there my 2 cents on the VA.

[jbasser]

It really is a Quality Assurance issue. Who is watching the VARO from the outside.

When the AIrlines or Auto Industry mess up there are 2 agencies that teams up to reconstruct acidents and issues to find the root cause and make countermeasures. Of course these are big news items like crashes and recalls.

The internal problems with the RO Quality assurance is the mere fact that the QA personnel also work for the Service Center Manager who controlls everyone including DRO's.

They need Quality Assurance teams that answer to someone else at a higher level so their work can not go obstructed as it is now and eventually the system will improve. Until that actually happens, then all bets are off.

Basser

[JT24usn]

Just saying Some of the people we are griping about are veterans themselves. Jmho

As of March 31, 2010, over 90,000, or just under 30 percent of VA’s 301,891 employees are Veterans. Over 74,000 of these employed Veterans are preference eligible, and 26,366 are disabled. VA ranks first among non-Defense agencies in the number of Veterans hired.

http://www.va.gov/OCA/testimony/hvac/seo/100415WH.asp