The average age of VA’s healthcare facilities is now more than 50 years old. As those buildings have aged, the cost of maintaining them has risen, and VA has not always been able to keep up.
VA Recharges Efforts to Tackle In-House Equity, Inclusion, Diversity Issues
VA needs to do more to ensure workforce equity, inclusion and diversity, especially in its senior leadership roles, according to legislators and employee advocates.
Military Survey Shows Preferences for HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Delivery
Use of pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent human immunodeficiency virus transmission remains relatively low for U.S. military servicemembers. New research suggests, however, that better understanding their treatment preferences could increase uptake.
VA Begins Process to Offer Gender Confirming Surgery to Transgender Veterans
With VA’s announcement that it will begin initiating the process to offer gender confirmation surgery to transgender veterans.
DoD Continues to Promote COVID-19 Vaccination; Navy Offers Incentives
The Navy became the first U.S. military branch to change policy so that servicemembers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 have more freedom of movement.
How Was a VA Nurse Assistant Able to Murder Seven Patients in One Year?
In May, Reta Mays, a former nurse’s assistant at VA’s Louis A. Johnson Medical Center in Clarksburg was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences—one each for the patients that she had pleaded guilty to murdering.
COVID-19 Pandemic Put Spotlight on VA’s Critical Supply Chain Problems
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored VA’s lack of a comprehensive supply chain management program, and agency officials once again defended their progress before Congress.
Infrastructure Lack Increases Health Risks of Native Americans
The COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately affected Native Americans, has revealed a critical need for investments in those communities, according to trial advocates and the Indian Health Service (IHS).
ADHD, Mental Health Comorbidities Affect Military Applicant Pool
As a common childhood diagnosis, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also affects the pool of potential military applicants.
Lab Supervisor Helps Reduce Blood Culture Contamination at VAMC
Not long ago, it wasn’t unheard of for Billie Shields to get called in the middle of the night to come into the Beckley VAMC and work up a blood culture on a patient. She was happy to do it—as a supervisor laboratory technician, she takes the role of serving veterans seriously.
DoD Personnel Critical in Getting Civilians Immunized Against COVID-19
In an effort to get as many COVID-19 shots into arms as possible as quickly as feasible, the military is continuing to supply personnel to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency at mass vaccination sites.
Chief Medical Recruiters Look for Commitment to the VA’s Mission
Even VA’s harshest critics regularly admit that VA provides world-class care to its veterans and that VA facilities are staffed by some of the most compassionate, hardest-working providers in any healthcare system in the country.
VA Doctors Sentenced for Crimes Committed Against Veteran Patients
The first months of 2021 saw the progression of a number of high-profile criminal cases involving VA employees charged with harming the patients they were tasked to serve.
VA Seeks to Improve Healthcare Services for LGBT Veterans
With the understanding that the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans is affected by how equitably they are treated, the VA is seeking to improve its services for those groups.
Military Sexual Assaults Lead to Voluntary Separations; Affect Force Readiness
In addition to the extreme trauma it causes victims, military sexual assault also makes it much more difficult for the U.S. military to retain good personnel, according to a new report.
Team Trains VA Health Professionals to Provide Better LGBT Care
As VA conducts a department-wide assessment of how it serves its LGBT veterans, agency leaders will likely discover what Jillian Shipherd, PhD, and Michael Kauth, PhD, have understood for years
Union Survey: VA Staff Not Adequately Protected Against COVID-19
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, VA staff have complained about shortages of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect against the virus.
VA Emergency Care, Urgent Care Units Challenged by the Pandemic
Every aspect of VA hospitals has been affected by the ongoing pandemic, but emergency care and urgent care have been disproportionately challenged, according to a VA Office of the Inspector General report.