WASHINGTON — America made a solemn pledge to take care of its veterans.
Yet, there are ongoing concerns about the Department of Veterans Affairs' ability to hire and retain the medical staff needed to care for the vets.
With 371,000 clinical and support staff employees, the Veterans Health Administration operates the nation's largest healthcare system, but in recent years, VHA has had difficulty attracting and retaining enough staff to meet the growing healthcare needs of veterans.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that most Veterans Affairs facilities did not have the recommended number of staff and were not hitting timeliness metrics for appointment scheduling.
"VA Medical Center officials told us that several factors may contribute to the program's staffing issues, including a national shortage of mental health providers, salary discrepancies with the private sector and a slow and complicated hiring process," said Sharon Silas, a Director in GAO's Health Care team.
The VA insists it is making progress, adding 13,000 employees, a 3.6 % increase, in the first seven months of Fiscal Year 2023.
"This represents VHA's highest growth rate in over twenty years," said Tracey Therit, Chief Human Capital Officer for the VA.
But, members of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittees on Health and Oversight and Investigations still have misgivings.
"I remain concerned about the VA's lengthy and resource-intensive hiring and relocation process. Delays in hiring and relocating staff across its own system has led to well-trained and high-quality staff ending up accepting other jobs outside the VA," said Rep Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia, 2nd District).
The report says that since 2006, the number of veterans who received mental health care from VHA grew by 85 %.
That's three times the rate for all other VA healthcare services.