The United States Department of Veteran Affairs

PAD 705 Organization Theory and Management

May 12, 2015
Brian Wilson

Since an Executive Order in 1930 the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been an independent agency dedicated to serving America’s Veterans. “The Department’s mission is to serve America’s Veterans and their families with dignity and compassion and to their principal advocate in ensuring that they receive medical care, benefits, social support, and lasting memorials promoting the health, welfare, and dignity of all Veterans in recognition of their service to this nation” (VA 2010). The VA is the second largest Federal department with over 278,000 employees as of 2010. Among these employees are a wide array of professions including; nurses, physicians, counselors, statisticians, architects, computer specialists, and attorneys. The VA is comprised of a Central Office, and field facilities throughout the Nation administered by its three major line organizations: Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Benefits Administration, and National Cemetery Administration. The services and benefits provided to our nations Veterans are presented through a nationwide network comprised of 153 hospitals, 956 outpatient clinics, 134 community living centers, 90 domiciliary residential rehabilitation treatment programs, 232 Vet centers, 57 Veterans benefits regional offices, and 131 national cemeteries. The Secretary has identified five strategic goals for the VA to focus on as the means to improve services to Veterans and their families as well as to improve management within the Department, these goals are what make up the VA Strategic Plan. The goals are as follows: * Restore the capability of Veterans with disabilities to the greatest extent possible, and improve the quality of their lives and that of their families. * Ensure a smooth transition for Veterans from active military service to civilian life. * Honor and serve Veterans in life, and memorialize them in death for their sacrifices on behalf of the Nation. * Contribute to public health, emergency management, socioeconomic well-being, and history of the Nation. * Deliver world-class service to Veterans and their families through effective communication and management of people, technology, business process, and financial resources. To label the Department of Veterans Affairs as a successful organization or a failure, the organization’s strategic plan must be analyzed against each of its goals. Many people consider the VA as a failure because of issues such as; long wait times in medical clinics and hospitals, long arduous paperwork processes, and the perceived notion that the VA does not actually help Veterans find the help that they need. Many of these issues can be explained by analyzing each one of the department’s strategic goals. Restore the capability of Veterans with disabilities to the greatest extent possible, and improve the quality of their lives and that of their families. The Department of Veterans Affairs has made major strides in the attempt to help Veterans with service related disabilities both physically and mentally. The Veterans Crisis Line is an example of a path that connects Veterans in crisis and their families and friends with qualified VA responders through a confidential toll-free hotline, online chat or text. The confidential support hotline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Part of the Veteran Crisis Line allows for people other than Veterans the ability to identify warning signs and opportunities to begin to help a Veteran in need. The VA also assists Veterans in promoting and protecting the physical health of Veterans and their loved ones and the public. Veterans who have been exposed to certain environmental conditions related to deployments can begin to see adverse health issues. For example during the Vietnam War the U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides on trees and vegetation. Concerns about these chemicals have begun to arise in later decades. A common way to get rid of waste on military bases and sites were the use of burn pits. Although research does not currently provide long-term health problems, toxins in burn pit smoke may affect the skin, eyes, respiratory and cardiovascular systems, gastrointestinal tract and internal organs. The VA offers eligible Veterans a free Agent Orange Registry health exam as well as an Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry to help the VA learn more about potential health effects and to battle against possible long-term health problems related to exposure. Ensure a smooth transition for Veterans from active military service to civilian life. The transition from military service to civilian life can be one of the largest challenges that Veterans face. Over the years the Department of Veterans Affairs has made large leaps in informing separating Veterans of benefits that those Veterans are entitled to upon their separation from the service. The VA has built a system known as the Transition Assistance Program that includes two classroom modules: a four hour VA Benefits I Briefing and a two hour VA Benefits II Briefing. The first briefing provides separating military personnel information on education, health care, compensation, life insurance, and home loans, as well as vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits information and counseling. The second briefing helps veterans understand some of the services and programs related to healthcare and understanding the disability compensation process. The VA tries to encourage spouses and family members to attend both briefings however only the service members are required to attend, causing some family members not to attend. These family members are usually the ones that are given misinformation in regards to contacting the VA and therefore cause complaints towards the VA. Honor and serve Veterans in life, and memorialize them in death for their sacrifices on behalf of the Nation. The Department of Veterans Affairs has three major line administrations one of which title the National Cemetery Administration (NCA). The mission of the NCA “is to honor our Nation’s Veterans with final resting places in national shrines and with lasting tributes that commemorate their service to our Nation” (VA 2010). The VA accomplishes this mission with the use of four major program areas: * Providing for the burial of eligible service members, Veterans, reservists, National Guard members, and eligible family members in national cemeteries. In 2009 more than 106,000 Veterans and eligible family members were buried in national cemeteries. In over 7,900 acres of developed land there are more than 3.5 million Veterans, spouses and dependents buried. * The furnishing of headstones and markers for Veterans’ graves throughout the United States and the world. In 2009, 350,000 headstones, markers, and inscriptions were furnished as lasting memorials to our Nation’s Veterans. * “Administering the State Cemetery Grants Program, which provides grants to states and tribal governments for establishing, expanding, and improving state Veterans’ cemeteries.” This program was established in 1978 awarding 274 grants and totaling over $389 million through 2009. “The program provides Federal funding up to 100 percent of the cost of establishing, expanding, or improving state or tribal government Veterans cemeteries that complement NCA.” * In order to honor the service of honorably discharged deceased service members or Veterans, it is the goal of the VA and NCA to provide Presidential Memorial Certificates. In 2009, the NCA issued more than 655,000 Presidential Memorial Certificates on behalf of the President. Contribute to the public health, emergency management, socioeconomic well-being, and history of the Nation. The Department of Veterans Affairs has been subdivided into certain offices in order to increase their operational productivity. One of these subdivisions is the Assistant Secretary for Operations, Security and Preparedness (OSP). To ensure that the Department can continue to perform its mission essential functions under all circumstances and threats the OSP is responsible for coordinating the VA’s emergency management, preparedness, personal identity verification, physical security, personnel security and suitability, police services and law enforcement activities. Within the OSP are further subdivided offices such as the Office of Emergency Management and the Office of Security and Law Enforcement. The office of Emergency Management is responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing policy and programs to ensure the VA has an integrated emergency management program through its four organizational units. The Office of Security and Law Enforcement is responsible for developing policies, procedures, and standards that govern the VA’s infrastructure protection, personal security and law enforcement programs, protecting Veterans, visitors, and staff in and on Department facilities and grounds. These two programs combined ensure that the VA is prepared to meet emergent national needs. Deliver world-class service to Veterans and their families through effective communication and management of people, technology, business processes, and financial resources. The organizational division of the Department of Veterans Affairs is structured in a way to facilitate the successful interaction between Veterans and their entitlements. Subdivisions such as the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, the Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration and the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs all perform as separate entities but continue to keep the mission of the VA as their number one priority. The VA provides a wide array of toll free numbers to help get Veterans the information that they seek. The numbers are broken down into categories of offices to cut down on the time spent on phone calls that further anger customers. All these numbers as well as all information that a Veteran, service member, spouse or dependent may need can be found on the Department of Veterans Affairs website at www.va.gov. The Department of Veterans Affairs has taken many steps forward in regards to accomplishing all goals in their strategic plan. The information shown and the success of subdivided offices and programs have certainly proved the VA to be a success in addressing their goals. The biggest issue that has been mentioned, throughout the media especially, is in regards to the customer service side of the spectrum. Almost everyone is aware of the problem that the VA has recently been experiencing in regards to long wait times. This unrest has called for the firing of senior VA officials, resulted in several resignations and has created outrage. In response to this outrage, Congress passed legislation that the President signed which gives veterans greater access to private healthcare facilities, provides the VA with additional funding to hire medical personnel, and makes it easier to fire VA’s senior executives. In 2014 Stewart Liff, an employee of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for 28 years, presented information on the recent and growing issues and challenges negatively affecting the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mr. Liff also provides a series of recommendations in order to prevent future abuses and to provide better service to America’s Veterans; “it must incorporate realistic numeric goals within the context of balanced scorecards subject to verification that measure overall service rather than performance on individual measures”. In order to address the current problems the VA must: * Ensure that every facility has an internal quality review system that reviews the accuracy of its data. * Schedule periodic independent on-site reviews of VA facilities and examine the same issue. * Establish an on-line program that identifies questionable or out-of-line action by VA offices. * Conduct customer surveys that compare the experiences of veterans to the data reports by the VA and addresses any inconsistencies. * Encourage whistleblowers to report improper actions, but verify the accuracy of their allegations. * Take appropriate action against individuals who manipulate the data. These recommendations are a step in the right direction, however in order for major changes like this to start taking effect we need to enhance the role of the supervisor. The Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the rest of the Federal government, needs to take a dramatic approach in the development of its supervisors at all levels. The implementation of a successful leader generates motivation in their employees, builds an open relationship, and ensures there are reliable consequences for levels of performance. Team leaders should be established in facilities that are experiencing problems with employee involvement and engagement as well as overall performance. If teams of leaders are instituted in troubling areas they can primarily focus on that issue specifically. The direct supervision of battling issues not only should start correcting the issue at hand but would definitely show that the Department of Veterans Affairs is making an effort to listen to complaints against them and working to better their organization to further help America’s Veterans. This concerted effort will increase public relations and better their customer service rating. When Congress passed legislation making it easier to fire senior VA officials they did not address the fact of replacing them with better officials. The process that needs to take place is the better training of the supervisors within the VA. Placing better leaders in situations that directly battle the issues at hand will undoubtedly facilitate improvement in organization functions and decrease the presence of these issues. References: You’ve served your nation with honor. Now, let VA serve you. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2015, from http://www.va.gov 2010 Organizational Briefing Book. (2010 June). Office of Human Resources and Administration Office of Administration, from http://www.va.gov