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Secretary Shinseki invited VA employees to participate in two surveys last year: a "vision and values" survey in the spring and an "organizational health index" survey in the summer. He did not share the results of those surveys with employees; and, far as I can tell, no actions have been initiated as a result of those surveys. VA employees will be invited to participate in another survey this year (the "all employee"... more »

A couple years ago, the National Academy of Public Administration prepared a report on recruitment and retention practices at VA. Among the Academy's recommendations for improvement was the suggestion that training for managers and supervisors focus primarily on improving communication, team building, and interpersonal relations skills. The Academy also recommended that VA assure that new managers have the necessary skills... more »

The V.A. can also help facilitate filling FOIA requests if they tell filling requesters for info the title of documents that may contain the info they are looking for so they can request those documents.

Dialogue requires one respond to the Other. Government has not been very responsive to the people, our needs or voices. Also, the double speak must go. We are told that the V.A. is being brought into the 21st century, yet 1. care is not holistic 2. the time allotted patients for appointments is being restricted. Even psych appointments to 30 min. Try evaluating a patient, and work out a change in psych meds including... more »

I would like to be involved in issues/projects such as: 1. Informed consent policy reform. The recent policy against gurney consents is a step in the right direction, but remains insufficient to ensure informed consent. 2. Safe, secure, and comfortable medical and mental health Care for female veterans. 3. establishing a patient driven research program. There does not seem to be any mechanisms to allow patients... more »

FOIA officers should have the responsibility and authority to command ALL staff and contractors to provide requested information or be suspended from ALL business with the U.S. government until they do. If the requests involve a individuals constitutional or human right to information, such as who performed what procedures on them while sedated just as an example, the force of law will be applied to ensure the individuals... more »

I think VA needs to have a Portal that Veterans could sign into to get copies of VA Rating results and other documents to save money of mailing and also if a Veteran loses a copy. They could log in an get the document and print it from home. The would help with printing cost and postage. Being in the paperless world.

It took me over 10 minutes to finally discover how to submit a new idea ... and I'm a senior web developer. There should be a link on the front page to submit an idea since this is the main purpose of the site.

There are very few people who will have the endurance to spend this much time to make a suggestion.

Having a button labeled 'Sign Up and Share Ideas' when I am logged in makes me think that your system is not recognizing that I am signed in. I have ignored that button for the last couple of hours or so while trying to find how to submit an idea. Finally I clicked it just to see where it took me. Once I sign in, that button should change to just 'Share Ideas' or 'Submit Ideas'. It is not intuitive at all. Sam Allgood... more »

I have had much difficulty with the VA in Dallas TX. The personnel sre very rude abrasive and at times threatening. I have tried to reach out to the Administrator several times only to be told that the Administrator does not have time to speak to Vets on an individual basis I have tried to contact Patient Rep onlt to be told that if you want to use the VA you need to have thick skin. It is very difficult to do anything... more »

The Texas Congressional Representatives are pressuring the VA to build a new hospital in this state. I think the veteran patients would be better served if there were more clinics in rural communities. The rural communities would benefit from having their medical facilities utilized by the vets. These clinics would refer a veteran to the closest VA Hospital for more specialized care and treatments. I retired from the... more »

I think VA should have a site where Veterans can go and select to receive their correspondence from the VA via email. By doing this the VA could save millions of dollars in office supplies. Right now it takes an average of three days for a piece of mail to get to the Veteran from the day it was place in the mail system. This would also allow the Veteran to save the file without having to create a paper file. These saving... more »

My doctor told me that she spends about half her time dealing with setting up labs, prescriptions, etc. for her patients. The computer system either needs to be streamlined or they need to hire some minimum wage type person to deal with that. You could have one person for each primary care "team" and it would free up the doctors to see more patients so we wouldn't have to wait so long for an appointment.

VA care should be more like medicare, where we could go see doctors of our choice. Granted, there are military-specific things that we would need to see a military doctor about, but it would be nice for regular care if I could have something similar to Tricare (especially if I could include spouse & kids for a small additional fee) that I could use with civilian doctors.

An online portal that allows prospective employees to track their application as it moves through the hiring process would be helpful