Tag Archives: Veterans Affairs

How Government Workforce Policies and Programs Support the Most Vulnerable

Posted on by

With nearly three million people in the federal workforce, the government has to be prepared to support employees with a wide variety of needs. With a workforce that resembles the population as a whole, the policies that the government puts in place can be used as an example for private sector companies as well as for organizations supporting our nation's more vulnerable populations.

The following three programs illustrate the ways the government is supporting its workforce and citizens when they are in vulnerable situations. Continue reading →

Improving Service. Improving Trust.

Posted on by

Improving customer service (or in the case of the government, citizen service) has been a focus of the Federal government for the past several administrations, most recently being named a key goal of the Biden-Harris President's Management Agenda (PMA). Despite this focus, citizen satisfaction with government service has remained low, but a 2022 report shows that the tide may be turning.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) Federal Government Report 2022 showed that citizen satisfaction with Federal government services increased by 4.6 percent in 2022. Report authors attribute the increase to improved availability of digital services (spurred by the PMA and the Customer Service Executive Order) and major government initiatives including the distribution of free COVID-19 tests. Continue reading →

Five Steps Toward Digital Transformation at the Department of Veterans Affairs

Posted on by

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is keenly focused on improving the healthcare and general services that support our military veterans. Incumbent on these improvements is the integration of leading edge technologies that digitize and automate processes for efficiency along with important security enhancements.

 

 

ONE: Implementation of Electronic Health Records

The Department's efforts to modernize the way they store and access records for the nine million veterans they care for into a comprehensive electronic system has been well documented. These efforts involve upgrading all 1200+ VA facilities' existing systems to ensure better continuity of care, and are currently focused on moving EHR data to a cloud system that will be interoperable with the Military Health System. The ultimate goal is to ensure service members can seamlessly and digitally transition from DOD to VA health care, instead of needing to carry around stacks of paper forms as is current practice.

Continue reading →

VA Deputy Secretary Scott Gould Leaving

Posted on by

Originally posted by Jason Miller on Federal News Radio 

Scott Gould, the deputy secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department, will leave his post May 17.

"We have accomplished great things together including increasing access for veterans, decreased homelessness among veterans, and improved departmental management," Gould wrote in an email to staff obtained by Federal News Radio. "There is more work to do to achieve our goals -- under Secretary Shinseki's leadership, I know the department is well-positioned to accomplish those goals. After four years of intense and rewarding public service, I am ready for the next stage in my private sector career.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki praised Gould's "advocacy and dedication" in a statement released April 29.

Continue reading →

Second VA official resigns over conference spending

Posted on by

Originally posted by Jason Miller on Federal News Radio

Another senior official at the Veterans Affairs Department is out because of the conference spending scandal.

Alice Muellerweiss, the dean of VA's Learning University, resigned today.

"VA has taken administrative action against two career senior executives named in the OIG report," a VA spokeswoman said in a statement. "One employee has subsequently resigned. The other employee has been reassigned to other duties."

Continue reading →