Department of Veterans Affairs - Obama Presidency Oral History

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Robert McDonald

...McDonald who was the secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs [VA] from 2014 to 2017. Previously...
...the Department of Veterans Affairs [ VA ] from 2014 to 2017. Previously...
...consider becoming secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs , it was an immediate yes, because i...
...way you viewed things later on at the VA ? Well, I think in large measure...
...yes. Because what we did at the VA was, we instituted what's calle...

...later, so I have the numbers—that the Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest medical system in th...
...370 thousand people. If you took the Department of Veterans Affairs and put it on a list of the Fortun...
...took of recognizing the size of the VA and the need for someone who ha...
...to resign because employees at the VA weren't telling him the truth abou...
...things I discovered when I arrived at VA was, it was pretty clear that th...
...study that was done on my tenure at the VA . I used this upside-down pyramid, wit...
...successive layer of leadership at the VA train the next lower level. Part o...
...implement. As I was going around the VA when I first got the role, people tol...
...was wrong, so she contacted the VA police force, contacted the loca...
...of the role, how did he view both the VA and what he was hoping you migh...
...I put together my thoughts of how the VA measured up to this high-performanc...
...this situation. The average age of a VA building is—well, fifty percent of V...
...a VA building is—well, fifty percent of VA buildings are sixty years old. Th...
...out my cell phone number, I want every VA employee to give out their cell phon...
...communicating that to the people at the VA , that was how I wanted them to thin...
...impacts. We've proven it, and it's the VA that's done it—Ann McKee, the doctor i...
...Institutes of Health], through the VA . The VA does about 2 billion dollar...
...of Health], through the VA. The VA does about 2 billion dollars o...
...in American medicine have come from the VA , whether it was Michael DeBakey an...
...hearts, or the other things—he's a VA doctor. An aspirin a day to ward of...
...have come from an alliance of the VA working with the best medical school...
...but provide clinical support to the VA . Can you think of any particula...
...learned at West Point, my theory on the VA , is you run to the gunfire. Let m...
...for me.” That's every day for me at the VA . I did not serve in combat. I was i...
...so he never knew I was secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs . But now, as I think back to hi...
...It's a carcinogen. And he goes to the VA . He gets great care. He loves the VA...
...VA. He gets great care. He loves the VA . But I thought about him every day i...
...points on our work as secretary of VA . For example, Vietnam—we talked abou...
...Obama's tenure, the budget of the VA went up by ninety percent. It'...
...huge, and it was necessary, because the VA had been ignored, or at least not care...
...put together the plan to transform the VA , our Senate committee—which was led b...
...advisor was past Secretary of the VA Robert Wilkie. He was there from th...
...also wondering if there were—the VA , obviously, works across such ...
...Democratic, Republican, every VA secretary, Democratic, Republican, wa...
...best friends before we ended up in the VA together. He served honorably in th...
...arguments to privatize parts of the VA during this period. Why was i...
...Why was it important to keep the VA public? I actually wrote an op-e...
...in October of 2014 of how important the VA is, not just for veterans, but also fo...
...and for American medicine. The modern VA was established in 1946 by General Oma...
...general, became the head of the VA . He worked with the medical professio...
...system. The system was that the VA would partner with the major medica...
...schools, and we would build the VA hospitals next to the medical school...
...training, they would train in the VA . They would do a lot of learning i...
...They would do a lot of learning in the VA . The professors at the medical schoo...
...would also do clinical work in the VA . The medical school and the VA woul...
...in the VA. The medical school and the VA would partner on research. So why doe...
...why does the country need the VA ? Number one is this idea o...
...one is this idea of innovation. The VA has partnered on most of the medica...
...things wouldn't have happened if the VA hadn't invested nearly 2 billio...
...of these things were done by the VA and a medical school. Secondly, the V...
...VA and a medical school. Secondly, the VA trains seventy percent of the doctor...
...a majority of the nurses. In fact, the VA is the largest employer of nurses i...
...to do that training if there is no VA ? Third, the clinical work on veterans...
...on veterans, the real reason that the VA is there, is, you know, the veteran...
...mention in the essay, which is, the VA , being the largest medical system i...
...public. If a catastrophe occurs, the VA has two thousand points of care in th...
...that we took very seriously at the VA . Is that something you've observe...
...Africa during the Ebola crisis. The VA was ready. That's what we had to be. I...
...ground zero for the implosion of the VA . In my first two weeks, my first tri...
...wanted to privatize a lot more of the VA , more willy nilly than I wanted to...
...amiable discussion. We talk about the VA . Great meeting. I couldn't figure ou...
...to Phoenix was to visit Cory in his VA -adapted house that we had helped hi...
...put was, under his leadership the VA budget nearly doubled. Under hi...
...1.2 million more receiving some type of VA care and services, 1.2 million mor...
...services, 1.2 million more enrolled in VA healthcare, 1.3 million more receivin...
...a half a million more have VA home loans, and a seventy-six percen...
...on what we were trying to do at the VA . She was a partner in what we wer...
...in what we were trying to do at the VA . She would hold lunches and dinners...
...you might not through the traditional VA activities? They had an office in th...
...the streets homeless. When I got to the VA , like any business guy, I did th...
...reason, there was a lawsuit against the VA . Many of my advisors had said, “Well...
...the UCLA residents would train at our VA hospital. Again, run to the gunfire...
...campus. I changed the leader at our VA medical center. I helped put somebod...
...using the land. Prior to my time, the VA had signed contracts with people t...
...whatever it might be, from the VA . I needed liaisons. We hired a bunc...
...benefits or strengths of that for the VA ? As I mentioned earlier, when I go...
...I mentioned earlier, when I got to the VA , I created an Office of Strategi...
...that that office still exists at the VA , that they're still working o...
...the phone. If the secretary of the VA called, they'd answer the phone. O...
...Like many of the issues at the VA , or even in government, suicide an...
...I was recruiting nurses, for the VA . But I was recruiting mental healt...
...the way we do mental health at the VA . Every patient, every veteran, had ...
...in till the time we bury them in a VA cemetery, we looked at what tha...
...looked at all the touch points with the VA . Then we went and measured how we wel...
...we were able to raise trust of the VA from, I don't know, low forties, an...
...& Gamble, pro bono, trained the VA in human-centered design. Also, yo...
...by the end of your time with the VA . May I interrupt you for ...
...that was only being done at the VA . It will not only benefit veterans bu...
...Let's do a 60 Minutes segment on the VA , and we'll do it at West Point. A...
...wanted to go look at other parts of the VA , so we went to Boston, where Scot...
...the strategic alliances are helping the VA today, is from the work that Matt an...
...process I was trying to put into the VA . Lean Six Sigma is about getting mor...
...was a director. Can I borrow him at the VA ?” Scott came to work at the VA. Wen...
...at the VA?” Scott came to work at the VA . Went to MIT [Massachusetts Institut...
...veteran. He came to work at the VA and ran the MyVA transformation projec...

Jodi Archambault Gillette

...Health Service, which is like the VA [Department of Veterans Affairs]. A lo...
...Health Service, which is like the VA [ Department of Veterans Affairs ]. A lot of people don't know this, bu...
...don't know this, but they're like the VA in that it's a government-run healt...

Michael Daniel

...on DOD [Department of Defense] and VA [Veterans Affairs] and defense healt...

Tina Tchen

...really horrific. It's a struggle the VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] stil...
...horrific. It's a struggle the VA [ Department of Veterans Affairs ] still has to this day, but w...
...the White House, and we brought in VA on a regular basis to report on thes...
...started this process, nothing about the VA claims process was automated. It wa...
...out the form––?” To their credit, the VA people would say, the tradition was...

...out on a napkin and that's a claim the VA has to take seriously, because the...
...the domestic policy team fully own the VA issues, and the national security tea...
...national security team didn't fully own VA issues. So we actually stepped in t...
...Small Business Administration, and the VA , and the Defense Department. Ther...
...the DOD, that wouldn't transfer to the VA , or wouldn't transfer to someone lik...

Brian Bond

...and others, Mara [Keisling], had with VA [Veterans Affairs] around guidance fo...
...and-or transgender guidance at the VA . We were down in the minutia...

Department of Veterans Affairs - Obama Presidency Oral History

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