Salinas, CA Veterans Administration Chief Resigns Under Political Pressure

View From A Nonprofit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

I speculated yesterday on my blog that the political pressure on President Barack Obama might be too great for him to allow VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to continue to run the Veteran's Administration.  News broke this morning that Shinseki has tendered his resignation.  The whole situation at the VA is very sad.  Many of their problems revolve around a software system which was designed in the 1980's and is limping along at best.  Another problem, according to a story today in The New York Times, is a doctor shortage which has plagued VA medical centers.  The Times article profiled Dr. Phyllis Hollenbeck, a primary care physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical center in Jackson, MI who took a job there in 2008 expecting fulfilling work and a lighter patient load than she had in private practice.  Instead, she got 13-hour workdays and growing patient loads as other doctors got fed up and quit and were not replaced.  She filed a whistleblower complaint and changed jobs.  A subsequent investigation found a lack of primary physicians at the hospital resulting in nurse-practitioners' handling very complex cases.  "It was unethical to put us in that position.  Your heart gets broken," Dr. Hollenbeck told The Times.  Unfortunately, we are now finding out that these problems are happening on a national level.  I hope they get this situation fixed quickly. 

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.