Department of Veterans Affairs
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The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are a long way from deploying new electronic health record systems that can communicate with each other. Both agencies didn't meet a deadline last year to make sure their data complies with national standards. Valerie Melvin is director of information management and technology resources issues at GAO. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose why defined goals would help both departments better measure their progress.
August 18, 2015 -
Two free training programs from the Department of Veterans Affairs won't only help veterans find new careers. They could be a road map to how agencies run pilot programs and prioritize decisions. Rosye Cloud is the acting director of the Office of Transition, Employment and Economics and a senior advisor for veteran development at the Veterans Affairs Department. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose how the programs work and what your agency can learn.
August 14, 2015 MSPB Chair Susan Tsui Grundmann took aim at a recent law and the legislation it's spawned. The year-old Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 curtails the due process rights of Senior Executive Service members in the Veterans Affairs Department. Just recently, the House passed legislation to extend the measure to the rest of the VA's workforce.
August 14, 2015-
The house has passed a bill that makes it easier and quicker to fire Veterans Affairs employees. Some see Congress’ latest drive to hold government accountable as noble. Others see it as an impending civil rights violation. Susan Tsui Grundmann is chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board. As Federal News Radio’s Emily Kopp report, she falls into the latter category.
August 13, 2015 -
Stan Lowe, VA’s deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Information Security, becomes the second senior executive to leave this week.
August 07, 2015 -
The Department of Veterans Affairs says it’s trying to become a customer focused organization, with programs built more around input from veterans themselves and less by the whims of Washington policymakers. Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu reports VA is starting with the fundamentals – like figuring out who those customers are.
August 05, 2015 Senior leaders from the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have been increasingly vocal in recent weeks about the work they have been doing over the past two years to achieve interoperability in the absence of a common electronic health record, vowing that they can meet Congress’ goal of health data interoperability without actually using the same software.
August 02, 2015-
The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are about to undergo a quantum leap in their ability to exchange patient medical records between doctors in the two health systems – and it’s got nothing to do with the $9 billion electronic health record DoD announced it was buying this week. More from Federal News Radio’s DoD reporter Jared Serbu.
July 31, 2015 -
Your work computer may look very different soon as Microsoft releases Windows 10. Some agencies have transitioned to Windows 7, but some agencies are still on Windows XP, which Microsoft doesn't support any more. Roger Baker is former assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs for information and technology at the Veterans Affairs Department. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose about the pitfalls and benefits of managing a huge IT transition.
July 29, 2015 -
Employees at the headquarters at the Department of Veterans Affairs have the ear of Congress. The Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee — Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) — tells In Depth with Francis Rose his most recent visit to VA included discussions with employees at every level of the agency.
July 29, 2015 -
The Pentagon capped off a more than two-year acquisition process for a new electronic health record Wednesday afternoon, awarding a $4.3 billion contract to a consortium of companies led by Leidos.
July 29, 2015 -
The Department of Veterans Affairs will have to shutter some facilities beginning in August if Congress does not approve an emergency reallocation of funds, officials said Wednesday. Congressional overseers are displeased, saying they were blindsided by VA’s budget emergency.
July 23, 2015 -
Veterans Affairs officials tell Congress today that they will have to begin a partial shutdown of the department unless Congress reallocates money into VA’s medical services accounts by next week. Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu reports, the shutdown would impact virtually every VA medical center in the country.
July 22, 2015 -
A bill that makes it easier for the Veterans Affairs Secretary to fire senior executives could extend to all other employees at the department. The probationary period for new employees would also get longer -- from 12 to 18 months. House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller says too few people at the department have been held accountable for the patient wait time scandal that emerged into public view last year -- nor for other management failings at VA. The VA Accountability Act of 2015 cleared the committee earlier this week. It will likely go to a full House vote during the last week in July. Carol Bonosaro is the president of the Senior Executives Association, which drafted a letter to Congress this week raising several objections to the bill. She tells In Depth guest host Jared Serbu about the differences between this bill, and a similar one introduced in Congress last year.
July 17, 2015 -
VA Accountability Act of 2015, would extend the probationary period for new employees to at least 18 months from the current 12. All employees would have a shorter window in which to appeal their firing or demotion.
July 15, 2015