Management

The VA Grand Challenge: Looking for Love in The Wrong Places

To solve a problem as complex and critical as veteran suicide, throw out the procurement playbook.

Management

Veterans Benefits Administration May Be Having Its Best Year Ever

Despite having to make operational changes, the agency has exceeded performance targets set before the pandemic.

Workforce

How Profit and Incompetence Delayed N95 Masks While People Died at the VA

Federal agencies have hired contractors with no experience to find respirators and masks, fueling a black market filled with price gouging and multiple layers of profiteering brokers. One contractor called them “buccaneers and pirates.”

Oversight

Did He Talk About Her? VA Secretary Changes His Story Amid Allegations He Sought Dirt on House Staffer.

Robert Wilkie is under investigation after a complaint that he sought information to discredit a House staffer who said she was sexually assaulted in a VA hospital. Wilkie denied discussing her with Rep. Dan Crenshaw. But an email indicates he did.

Defense

GovExec Daily: How VA Is – and Isn't – Supporting Its Personnel During the Pandemic

Eric Katz joins the program to talk about the ways that Veterans Affairs employees feel management has backed them up while treating coronavirus patients.

Workforce

VA Instructs Coronavirus-Exposed Staff to Continue Working, Places Those Who Don’t in AWOL Status

"This is the absolute worst-case scenario of anything I have ever experienced in my nursing career," according to one registered nurse.

Workforce

Three VA Health Workers Have Died of COVID-19. 776 Have Tested Positive.

After workers reported shortages of tests, masks and gloves, VA health staff in Detroit; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Indianapolis have died of COVID-19. Almost 800 have tested positive.

Workforce

VA Looks to Boost Hiring to Confront Coronavirus as Employees Decry Shortfalls

Medical staff only able to provide "subpar care" to patients under current circumstances, one nurse says.

Workforce

Court Deals Major Blow to Trump's Signature Civil Service Reform Law

Ruling will put "structure" and "safeguards" in place for employee discipline law, attorney says.

Management

This VA Hospital Cited 'Misleading' Data to Restrict Mask Use for Health Care Workers

Workers at a VA hospital in New Mexico have been told not to wear face masks in certain cases, even though earlier CDC guidance said masks can protect against spread of the coronavirus.

Management

The Trump Administration Is Leaving the Nation’s Emergency Backup Hospital System on the Sidelines

Leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs say they are ready to answer the call to assist HHS or FEMA. But the call has not come.

Management

The VA Will Now Let Some Administrative Staff Work From Home

After New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica reported that the VA was not allowing telework, the agency reserved course. Some workers remain skeptical that the policy will be implemented.

Management

Understaffed Veterans Affairs Scrambles to Confront COVID-19

The nation’s largest integrated health care system has only limited protocols in place to protect elderly patients. Roughly half of the 9 million veterans who use the VA’s hospitals are at least 65 years old.

Pay & Benefits

Panel Pushes Measure to Allow VA Docs and Nurses to Negotiate Pay, Scheduling

The Veterans Affairs Department opposes the legislation, saying it would harm delivery of care to veterans.

Tech

GovExec Daily: The Future of 5G Hospitals

Nextgov's Brandi Vincent and Heather Kuldell explain to the podcast how the Veterans Affairs Department is looking to lead the way in health care technology.

Workforce

VA Secretary Under Investigation After Complaint He Looked for Dirt on a House Staffer Who Said She’d Been Assaulted

The agency’s internal watchdog told lawmakers about the probe after ProPublica unearthed the allegations against Secretary Robert Wilkie.

Management

Trump Endorsed a Risky Antidepressant for Veterans. Lawmakers Want to Know if His Mar-a-Lago Pals Had a Stake in the Drugmaker.

House Democrats requested emails and financial records as they investigate why the president told the VA to “corner the market” on a Johnson & Johnson drug.