07-22-2017, 11:11 PM
|
|
|
Confirmed User
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Swamp
Posts: 5,197
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rochard
You want a perfect example? The VA. Trump promised to fix the VA. Well, we are now six months into his term and.... What's happened there? He appointed someone new to run the VA and signed a bill into law that makes it easier for the VA to fire people. Has he reported back to the American public explaining what he has done? Has he explained his plan to fix the VA? Does he have a plan? Anything? He just appointed someone new, signed a single bill into law, problem solved, pat himself on the back, he made the VA great again.
|
Quote:
The Department of Veterans Affairs has fired more than 500 employees since Jan. 20, when President Trump took office, according to a list of job categories of employees recently disciplined or fired....
?In the past, the VA was not straightforward on who they were disciplining and who they let retire,? said Dan Caldwell, director of policy for the Concerned Veterans for America, a grassroots veterans? advocacy organization. ?Often the VA would say someone was fired, and we?d find out later that employee was not fired, they were actually just suspended, demoted or had been allowed to retire before they could be fired.?
VA has fired 500 employees since Trump took office, report shows | Fox News
|
Quote:
In Shulkin?s five months on the job, the VA has been a whirlwind of activity:
The department announced last week that between President Trump?s inauguration and July 3, it had fired 526 employees, demoted another 27, and temporarily suspended another 194 for longer than two weeks.
In April, the department launched a new website that lets veterans compare the wait times at its facilities and view Yelp-style reviews of each facility written by previous patients.
Veterans Health Administration?s Veterans Crisis Line ? designed for those struggling with PTSD, thoughts of suicide, and other forms of mental stress ? is now answering ?more than 90 percent of calls within 8 seconds, and only about one percent of calls are being rerouted to a backup call center.? A year ago, an inspector general report noted that ?more than a third of calls were being shunted to backup call centers, some calls were taking more than a half hour to be answered and other callers were being given only an option to leave messages on voicemail.?
At the end of June, Shulkin unveiled the world?s most advanced commercial prosthetic limb ? the Life Under Kinetic Evolution (LUKE) arm ? during a visit to a VA facility in New York. Veteran amputees demonstrated the technology, a collaboration among the VA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the private sector. (The name alludes to the lifelike robotic hand that Luke Skywalker is fitted with in The Empire Strikes Back.)
In May, Shulkin said the department had identified more than 430 vacant buildings and 735 underutilized ones that cost the federal government $25 million a year. He said that most of the buildings are not treatment facilities and could profitably be closed or consolidated. Of course, if he actually attempted to close or consolidate some of the buildings, he might face a controversy along the lines of those touched off by military-base-closing announcements in recent decades.
David Shulkin & Department of Veterans Affairs: Reforms Coming Quickly | National Review
|
Quote:
"For the first time in the VA's history, Shulkin will allow veterans with a less than honorable military discharge to be able to access free mental health care services. "....
Shulkin is also tackling the gargantuan task of replacing the government's record system. He cited a public interest exception to federal contracting rules to give Cerner Corp. the job without competitive bidding. Cerner won the $4.3 billion Department of Defense contract in 2015.
"We are moving towards single electronic medical records with the Department of Defense," Shulkin said. This is to avoid having "two separate systems all with the same veterans electronic medical records in two systems."
Shulkin said he is also working with the DOD to get rid of the "transitional gap." He said the DOD puts servicemen and women through intense training when they enter the military. He believes veterans should get just as much training when they transition from a military life and into a civilian life.
https://www.local10.com/health/dr-da...tary-veterans-
|
Seems to me a lot of good, positive things are happening inside the V.A.
__________________
XXXRewards - Karups - Boyfun - Jawked. Paying on time since 1997. Contact me at brent [at] xxxrewards.com
|
|
|