...The Department of Veterans Affairs Information Management System: Serving those that Served Punefuolemotu E.L. Aiumu Everest University MBA Degree Program Information Management System Abstract I selected this title because I served in the United States Army from 2003 to 2010. I was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and several other operations. However, when I left the Service it became clear to me years later that Veterans Affairs weren’t ready to treat our Men and Women coming back from War. So I did some extensive research on how the system may have failed the people it was supposed to serve. And a good example of the system’s failure was the second Fort Hood incident in 2014. Keywords: Veterans Affairs, Fort Hood, Service The Department of Veterans Affairs Information Management System: Serving those that Served The reason why I chose this subject is because it is close to home and it also affects me. After two weeks of this class I wanted to dive deep into information management. I want to know why our system at the Department of Veterans Affairs do not stand ready to serve the Veteran population of our Nation properly. So many Veterans complain about loss or insufficient pensions because the VA hasn’t track them sufficiently. Sitting at Veterans Hospital in Orlando, FL I hear two Vietnam era Veterans talk about not having VA ID Cards. And they have been waiting for it since 2009. I asked them why it took this long, and they said, “The...
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...The organization structure of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is based on a divisional organization structure. My division of the VA is called the Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA), and it’s formed by various employees from different departments who form various groups in order to achieve an objective and solve an issues relating to all monetary benefits for veterans. All VBA group members, are specialized in a certain functions, however each member is familiar with all the laws and regulations governed to find the best solution to resolve a veteran’s claim using accuracy, privacy and professionalism. Once a resolution is achieved, the group dissolves and each member returns to her specific department. How an organization is setup can directly impact how successful the organization is in achieving those goals. Without an appropriate organizational structure, a business will not succeed. The VA has the solemn duty to serve those who have served our nation. America’s Veterans have served in many conflicts, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a mission to keep our country and the American people safe. While the organizational structure is centered on the company’s goals, it also dictates how reporting priorities and key strategies of upper management. There are three main types of organizational structure: functional, divisional and matrix structure. VA’s mission is to fulfill President Lincoln’s promise “to care for him who shall have borne the battle...
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...The Department of Veterans Affairs and the stigma of patient’s mistreatment Rafael A. Vazquez Texas Tech University Clinical Practice Management The Department of Veterans Affairs is the biggest healthcare system in the United States, and serves in many ways to veterans of all branches of our armed forces and the VA main function is to provide healthcare, primary long care instead of acute care in each VA facility around our nation and in some countries around the globe. The VA has other functions such as payments to veterans and dependents and also provides a dignified burial to those brave men and women who served with dignity and valor during peace and wartimes (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2014). The VA takes care to approximately 5.8 million patients annually in more than 900 sites, including 152 medical centers and more than 700 community-based outpatient clinics. Annually, it provides primary care to more than 5 million patients, “Its hospitals, health care centers, ambulatory care centers and community based outpatient clinics are organized into 21 regional networks, known as VA integrated services networks, or VISNs, which control the management and funding of local hospitals and clinics. Many of the VA’s tertiary care centers are affiliated with academic medical centers, which, according to VA estimates, enable the health system to train at least 75 percent of the nation’s physicians—either as medical students or residents (The Commonwealth Fund ...
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...The United States Department of Veteran Affairs PAD 705 Organization Theory and Management May 12, 2015 Brian Wilson Since an Executive Order in 1930 the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been an independent agency dedicated to serving America’s Veterans. “The Department’s mission is to serve America’s Veterans and their families with dignity and compassion and to their principal advocate in ensuring that they receive medical care, benefits, social support, and lasting memorials promoting the health, welfare, and dignity of all Veterans in recognition of their service to this nation” (VA 2010). The VA is the second largest Federal department with over 278,000 employees as of 2010. Among these employees are a wide array of professions including; nurses, physicians, counselors, statisticians, architects, computer specialists, and attorneys. The VA is comprised of a Central Office, and field facilities throughout the Nation administered by its three major line organizations: Veterans Health Administration, Veterans Benefits Administration, and National Cemetery Administration. The services and benefits provided to our nations Veterans are presented through a nationwide network comprised of 153 hospitals, 956 outpatient clinics, 134 community living centers, 90 domiciliary residential rehabilitation treatment programs, 232 Vet centers, 57 Veterans benefits regional offices, and 131 national cemeteries. The Secretary has identified five strategic goals for...
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...Four fundamental and core concepts to follow are plan, organize, lead, and control. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has forgone such challenges in the process of reinventing itself (United States Department of Veteran Affairs, 2011). The VA fought internal and external factors that impacted areas in globalization, technology, innovation, diversity, and ethics. As the United States continues to fight against terrorism, members of the military continue to come home broken and disabled. Some disabilities require long-term recovery. The Department of Veteran Affairs makes every possible effort to ensure veterans receive the quality of care they need to enable them in performing their daily functions. The VA uses globalization not in a way to sell goods or services throughout the world but as an internal measure to promote acceptance, appreciation and tolerance of people from all backgrounds, cultures and nationalities. (businessdictionary.com, n.d.) Veterans gave of themselves to preserve the freedoms Americans now cherish without any concern to one’s background, religion, race, or culture. A veteran is a hero who deserves to be treated with honor and dignity no matter what part of the world he or she comes from. According to the businessdictionary.com, Technology is the purposeful application of information used in the health care field. The Department of Veterans Affairs health care system is using various types of technologies in the VA hospitals. Telemetry...
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... Cecilia Perez Ethics and Credibility in Business Communication The Department of Veterans Affairs duties are to provide vital services to veterans. VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) provides health care services, benefits programs and access to national cemeteries for vets and their dependents (VA.gov). There are three main administrative divisions that assist in carrying out its duties: Veterans Benefits Administration, Veterans Health Administration, and National Cemetery Administration. The Department of Veterans Affairs is to assist military veterans to assure they are provided the care and needs they are afforded when separated from service. Veterans rely on VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) on these services. When a veteran wants to claim any disability through VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) they are given options to whom they want to represent them on filing their claim for disability. Houston Rip-offs of Disabled Vets Leland Spencer a disabled ex-Marine had the Department of Veterans Affairs appoint him an Attorney to handle his claims. This Attorney was Joe B. Phillips who is 72. Mr. Phillips and his wife Dorothy stood trial for conspiracy to commit fraud. They both had embezzled over 2 million dollars from close to 28 reported disabled veterans (Housotn, Chron 2011). Pulling off the largest uncovered VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) rip-off which is responsible for around 3.1 billion in disabled veteran’s assets nationwide (Houston...
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...Introduction and Background Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) is one of the three major organizations that make up the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA). The organization was formed on July 21, 1930 and is responsible for administrating financial and other supportive assistance to veterans and their dependents and survivors. (U.S Department of Vereans Affairs, 2012) The VBA started off handling non-medical financial assistance such as compensation and benefits, loan guaranty, and life insurance. Back in 1944, the VBA expanded by taking on the education program where veterans are given the opportunity to attend classes and pursue a higher education. With the large amount of veterans discharged from the Iraq starting December 2011 (Cutler, 2011) , the demand to process benefit claims are rapidly increasing and their move for horizontal expansion might be more than they can handle. Education program After the Vietnam War, the DVA proposed a new program to help veterans and their education with the education program. The idea is promising because the benefits included financial assistance with tuition, housing, and textbooks. Realistically, the program had encountered a major issue with the new education program. With the rapid increase of veterans in the past decade, the claims processed could be too much for the VBA to handle. Early in September 2009, the DVA failed to send out “about 227,000 scheduled college checks for those qualifying for the GI Bill education benefits...
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...The VA plays a critical role in the health of the military personnel, veterans, and their family members. The VA’s mission is to care for the men and women who have served in the military to protect the United States (U.S.) of America. Also, the VA’s mission is to care for the military personals family members, and all survivors and the core of their value revolves around their mission (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2017 I). A part of caring for these individuals the VA mission is to ensure social support, medical care, and benefits are provided. In addition, they strive to promote dignity, health, and welfare to all Veterans (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2017 F). The VA’s function is to make sure that their purpose is...
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...make clear is the fine print that restricts many veterans from obtaining what should be rightfully theirs. For instance, the TSGLI insures that all veterans with a type of mental or physical disorder is covered with life insurance known as the SGLI program (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (2013) . Something that everyone seems to look past is the short term financial coverage (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (2013). Only having short term coverage can kill if not severely hurt a veteran’s life. Not only could the veteran run out of money trying to get better, but if someone is only covered for so long and is without work, he is liable to lose something he owns. Coming back from war, most veterans...
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...STRENGTHS • Veteran Staffing • Teamwork Based • Patriotic Spirit • Nationwide Facilities WEAKNESSES • Time Constraints • Excessive Workload • Position Attrition • Economic Budget Constraints OPPORTUNITIES • Benefits Packages • Upward Promotion Mobility • Veteran Outreach Satisfaction THREATS • Privatization • Non Bipartisan Government • Veteran Mortality Rates Working at the Department of Veterans Regional office in St. Petersburg, Florida is a challenging and rewarding career position. This is the third component of the Federal government that I have been employed by and it is by far the most rewarding position I have held. As a disabled veteran, I am already appreciative of the dedication of the employees that helped me with my medical issues when I was going through my examinations and rehabilitation and some twelve years later I was able to join the ranks myself. What is most amazing about working at the Department of Veterans Affairs is that everyone that crosses our paths each day is a brother or sister of our military family. By conducting a SWOT analysis of my position at the Department of Veterans Affairs, I can give a better understanding of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to myself and those outside of my environment which gives an opinion of the employment. The Strengths of being an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs are that” nearly about 57 percent...
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...research project I have chosen to write about the Department of Veteran Affairs. The department of veteran affairs is responsible for health care and benefits of military veterans throughout the world. The department of veteran’s affairs is centrally located in Washington D.C and is one of the largest department agencies in the US government. Over the past several years the Department of Veteran affairs has been facing challenges when it comes to accountability and performance. I am new into the Veteran system and I have witness first hand some of the challenges faced when it comes to accountability and performance. When trying to fully understand the department of Veteran affairs you must understand that they are a lot of responsibilities associated with it. Veteran affairs provides not only for Veterans but also their families. Additional responsibility includes compensation, disability care, education, and everyone favorite home loans. Veteran affairs by law is required to provide eligible veterans in and out patient care. All these responsibilities and the number of Veterans that is under it care allows for easy access of declining accountability and performance. There is no quick fix to what has occurred at the Department of veteran affairs. There have been several years of systematic failures and broken promises to Veterans. Just by going to medical appointments at the VA hospital and listing to some of the veterans and seeing their expression it is clear that there...
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...Operation Continuity: A Resolution for the Veteran Affairs Backlog A Resolution For The VA Backlog Alicia Seabrooks Kaplan University July 16th 2013 How can the problems with the Veteran Affairs compensation claim backlog be resolved and our Veterans be better taken care of? Continuity! Providing some type of transitional continuity of records, especially healthcare records could be the stepping-stone to an overall improvement and solution. This could possibly make it easier for the Department of Defense to have cross platform communication and share data with the VA about those Veterans transitioning out of service. The current backlog is somewhere upward of 600,000 unfulfilled claims, most of which have been waiting in excess of 365 days and counting. By implementing a standard continuity of care for service members transitioning from active or reserve duty status to Veteran status, we can possible save and better protect one of the Nation’s most valuable assets, our former heroes, the American Veteran. The stories of veterans seeking assistance that has been rightfully promised to them are sometimes uplifting and others just heart wrenching and sorrow filled. After doing the legwork and conducting a few interviews, doing some independent research and reading up on proposed solutions I have come across a magnitude of stories filled with so much emotion. These emotions range from despair and hopelessness to joy, appreciation and gratitude to not be forgotten about...
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...Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Necessary Improvements the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and United States Department of Defense Must Make Abstract Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental anxiety disorder, affects 13% to 20% of armed force members returning from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) (Hoge, et. al, 2004), in addition to a large population of Vietnam Veterans. Within the past 32 years, awareness of this disorder has escalated and the realism of the severity of this disorder has been noticed. Efforts to screen and treat PTSD in military veterans have been established by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Screening is conducted once military personnel return from deployment and treatments including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Exposure Therapy, and medications are used to relieve the symptoms of PTSD. These screening and treatment methods are evaluated and s suggestion for improvement is made. Necessary Improvements the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the United States Department of Defense Must Make With Regards to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In current political debate, the United States is arguing where budget cuts should be made and how the U.S. should go about spending money. The U.S. military is consistently brought up in these considerations. In such considerations, topics such as downsizing the military and the...
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...treatment options available for individuals. To better understand PTSD, it is good to know who and how PTSD impacts people. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can affect anyone at any age that has been through a traumatic event (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015). "This includes war veterans and survivors of physical and sexual assault, abuse, accidents, disasters, and many other serious events" (National Institute of Mental Health, 2015). One of the populations groups that are widely affected by PTSD is the Nation's veterans. The Veteran population is widely affected because of the wars that the veterans have been battling across the world. Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms may cause problems in work or social relationships and situations. PTSD symptoms usually start within three months of a traumatic event, and the symptoms may not appear until years after the event.(Mayo Clinic, 2015). Another important factor to know is the various types of symptoms associated with PTSD. Some of the common symptoms that are associated with PTSD are reliving the event, avoiding situations that remind you of the event, negative changes in beliefs and feelings, Feeling keyed up (U. S.s Department of...
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...first started and how it has evolved over the years to become the entity it is today, serving our nations veterans. I will also discuss how the Veteran’s Administration has been plagued with many scandals throughout its existence, from when it was known as the Veterans Bureau during the early 1920’s and also the many issues that the Veterans Administration has dealt with over the years to include those that were involved and their official capacity in wrong doings. This paper will look at how the Veterans administration has tried to make changes to support the increased number of Veterans after many of our past wars and some of the difficulties veterans from the Vietnam War have faced to receive care and benefits that were exposed to Agent Orange. I will also looked at the many problems veterans have faced over the years to include most recent allegation that the VA has gone through since the earlier part of this year and the changes that has taken place to correct the problem. According to an article written by CNN, during the end of the Revolutionary War Congress was supposed to pay those veterans that were disabled during the war, but the service members individual states were left up to the task, leaving only a few thousand to receive any type of payment pay. Congress establishes the Veterans Bureau which was to help administer assistance to veterans of World War I. In 1921 President Harding appointed Colonel Charles R. Forbes as the head of a newly established...
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