VA secretary readies major overhaul

The Department of Veterans Affairs will announce a major overhaul of its scandal-plagued healthcare system designed to make it easier for millions of patients to receive care, its top official said in an interview broadcast late Sunday.

{mosads}VA Secretary Robert McDonald told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that the department aims to simplify the process because too many patients “don’t know where to go.”

He will formally make the announcement on Monday, one day before Veterans Day and about 100 days into his tenure.

Some of the changes will be behind the scenes, such as streamlining the nine different organizational structures across the country. The department will also create a website that allows people to have “one entry point” into the system, he said.

McDonald said the current system, which requires multiple user names and passwords, is “not acceptable.” Another improvement will involve a “customer service representative” that can offer one-on-one help.

He also pledged to take action against people who violated the department’s mission — as many as 1,000 employees.

Acknowledging that poor employees must “absolutely” be cleared out, he said it would be a slow process. He said the department has “a lot of people” on administrative leave until a government judge could officially approve the disciplinary action.

The reforms will come amid a major hiring spree at the VA. McDonald said he needs to hire about 28,000 healthcare professionals, the same figure he told Congress in September.

When asked about the department’s struggles to recruit new staff, McDonald acknowledged it has a poor reputation but added, “We’re changing it.”

To recruit top doctors to help clean up the VA, McDonald sometimes makes the calls himself. He has also given most of the department’s current doctors a raise to retain them.

McDonald took the helm of the federal government’s second largest department amid widespread reports of mismanagement within its healthcare system that prompted his predecessor Eric Shinseki to resign.

He said the reports “incensed” him, and he knew when he got the call that he would take the job.

“My immediate reaction was, ‘I want to do it.’ I feel like my whole life has been designed to lead to this,” he said.

Since then, the former Proctor and Gamble executive has tried to be both approachable and transparent. He has told his staff to call him “Bob,” given out his cellphone number to reporters and personally inspected 41 facilities across the country.

During the interview, McDonald pulls out a handwritten note he received from a veteran who once had to travel from Alabama to Boston to get medical care.

“That breaks my heart,” he said.