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Eric Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, addressed service members gathered at an Army medical conference in San Antonio Wednesday. The retired Army General used the opportunity to outline his vision for improving VA healthcare over the next several years.
July 22, 2009 · Eric Shinseki took the helm of the VA only six months ago, but he’s already coming to grips to with the enormous physical and emotional challenges facing veterans trying to survive outside the military.
“Veterans lead the nation in homelessness, depression, substance abuse, suicides, and they rank right up there in joblessness as well. Now, I’ve told the VA that we’re going to take 131,000 homeless veterans off our streets in the next five years,” says Shinseki.
He says he’s also determined to breakdown the stereotype that the VA is convoluted bureaucracy that can’t serve it patients in an efficient manner.
“Now some of you may have heard about the backlog of disability claims in the VA. I’m personally committed – I’m taking that one on, and personally committed to reducing the backlog processing time of disability claims so that veterans don’t have to wait six to twelve months for their checks,” Shinseki said.
Shinseki says the key to reducing backlogs is making medical and service records electronic. He wants to merge the record keeping systems of the VA and the Defense Department – and he wants all service members automatically enrolled in the VA at the time they join the military so more have access to care after they are discharged. |
