The plan for changes came a day after new Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes" and discussed his resolution to fire or put a number of employees into disciplinary action. Likewise, McDonald has laid out plans to employ thousands more doctors and health care workers.
Part of the reorganization of the department would also involve an overhaul in the system in order for veterans to gain an easier access to the department, relieving them from the trouble of having to go through its maze-like websites.
The restructuring is deemed as the largest in the history of the department, the highlight of which would be on strengthening its customer service. The latter is seen as an integral component for the department to fully serve its 22 million veterans.
Dubbed as "My VA," the department secretary's initiative will be focused on giving the veterans the feeling of being more important as compared to the bureaucracy.
"As VA moves forward, we will judge the success of all our efforts against a single metric: the outcomes we provide for veterans," said McDonald. "The VA's mission is to care for veterans, so we must become more focused on veterans' needs."
McDonald will hire a chief customer service officer whose department shall be training employees on providing enhanced customer satisfaction. He also wants the department to become more accountable when it comes to serving its millions of veterans.
"We want them to think of our department as embracing them, as giving them a warm hug," said McDonald. He hopes that the changes in the department would be able to correct those accusations that a number of veterans died while waiting to receive care, patiently adhering to a waiting list that has been suspiciously manipulated.
Sixty-year-old Vietnam veteran Joseph Benenati says he doesn't see any improvements at the Nevada's VA facility. Apparently, he has been trying to make appointments several times since August.
"They schedule an appointment 30 to 60 days out, then cancel it within a week to a few days from the appointment," said Benenati.
A structural overhaul is also planned in order to consolidate a huge range of functions that would be tackled by a number of regional offices. New guidelines for individual facilities would also be drafted in a pre-defined area or vicinity in order to create tighter relationships with several chapters of veterans organizations, local lawmakers, military installations and colleges.
"In the old system, there were a lot of layers, and one concern was that none of the bad news got up to the secretary because of all those layers," said Garry J. Augustine, Washington executive director of the Disabled American Veterans group. "McDonald, I think, would like to get rid of that."
