Hands to Help Seniors

Although President Barack Obama accepted the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki yesterday, problems at this important institution are far from over.  Getting a new appointee to be confirmed by Congress will be challenging.  The scrutiny will be intense on any nominee after so much mismanagement has been found at the VA.  The full investigation has not yet been completed by the inspector general, who has already said there may be criminal charges filed against some employees.  At the very least there will likely be many VA employees who are fired.  Currently, the deputy secretary, Sloan Gibson, is interim chief of the VA and he certainly has his work cut out for him.  The biggest problem which lies ahead, in my view, is completely revamping the software system which is outdated and clearly causing many of the problems at the VA.

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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.

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

The head of the Veterans Administration, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, has been under heavy political fire over the many problems plaguing the VA.  The heat intensified today after an interim report by the VA's independent inspector general found widespread scheduling problems throughout the entire VA system.  The inspector general said it had identified potential criminal and civil violations and is coordinating with the Justice Department regarding these.  A number of high-profile politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, have called for his head, and President Barack Obama may be forced to ask for his resignation to move this out of the front page news.  It is now confirmed that 1,700 veterans were on a waiting list for a primary care physician at the Phoenix VA but didn't appear on the electronic waiting list.  This now appears to be a nationwide problem.  The VA must take action to upgrade their software systems immediately.  It's unacceptable for veterans to be treated this way.

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.

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

Two local residents, Daniel Troia and Luke Young, leave on Memorial Day for a 3,500 bicycle ride from the west coast to New York City, all in order to benefit a great local non-profit in Salinas.   Dorothy's Place serves hot meals as well as providing overnight accommodations for the homeless, many of whom are local female senior citizens.  The journey is expected to take the duo 10 weeks.  "We are anticipating some rough times.  Neither of us believes this will be an easy, casual bike ride," Troia told the Monterey Herald.  "We expect to run into weather that's really different from what we're used to.  We know we're going to get tired and really sore.  And we expect to encounter problems along the way.  But no matter how difficult our life gets on the road, I plan to keep reminding myself that what I'm going through is much easier than the lives of people who are homeless on the streets of Monterey County," he said.  What a great attitude!  If you would like to help their cause please visit www.alongwayfromhome2014.weebly.com.

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.

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

Continued problems at the Veterans Administration have plagued the Obama Administration and although Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has refused to resign, political pressure did result in the resignation of Robert Petzel, the VA undersecretary for health care.  Whistleblowers and the House Committee on Veterans Affairs have alleged that as many as 40 veterans may have died as a result of excessive wait times.  26 VA centers across the nation are under investigation by the inspector general of the Veterans Affairs Department for mismanagement after it was alleged that a VA hospital in Phoenix manipulated records to make it look like there was little wait time to see a doctor when there was quite a lengthy one.   Relatives of James Pert told the Wall Street Journal that eight months after going to the Phoenix VA Health Center for help, he received a call saying he had been assigned a primary care physician.  This was earlier than expected.  Initially VA employees told Pert it would be about a year to get an appointment.  By the time he got to the doctor, it was too late.  The 64-year old marine was dying of melanoma (he died in June of last year).  The scheduling software that the VA uses was developed in 1984, the first year Apple debuted the Macintosh.  The system has remained largely unchanged over the past three decades.  This mess has led to fuel for Republicans to use to attack President Obama in the upcoming elections.  A number of Congressional candidates on Thursday asked the President to fire Shinseki.  The VA crisis was called "a national embarrassment" by House Majority Whip Keven McCarthy (R-CA).  This seems to be a mess even bigger than the failure of the health care reform web site.  The VA needs to move quickly to get onto a new software system.

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.

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