Kenneth W. Kizer, undersecretary for health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, has announced he is stepping down from the position that brought him a healthy dose of both accolades and criticism.
Kizer arrived at the VA in 1994 and immediately began to make sweeping changes. Under his direction, the department's network of veterans' hospitals underwent the largest reorganization since the VA medical system was created in 1946. Kizer shifted the agency's focus from inpatient hospital care to outpatient services offered in newly created clinics.
Many VA managers embraced the changes-Kizer's management system allowed them more freedom to allocate resources in exchange for agreeing to meet strict performance goals tied to the agency's strategic plan.
In 1998, only the Transportation Department scored higher than VA when Congress graded agencies' performance plans. In Government Executive's 1999 Government Performance Project agency rankings, Veterans Affairs came out ahead of many agencies is areas such as managing for results and capital planning. Kizer was credited for a large portion of the department's success.
But employee organizations, some veterans groups and several members of Congress vigorously opposed Kizer's efforts to shift funds away from VA hospitals. "Under Dr. Kizer's tenure, the DVA has been dismantled bed by bed, ward by ward, and hospital by hospital to the detriment of the men and women who served our country in times of conflict," American Federation of Government Employees President Bobby Harnage wrote in a letter this week to Senator Arlen Specter, R-Penn., recommending that Kizer not be reconfirmed.
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