Diagnose, then cure, ailments that weaken core values of VA

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs proudly pledges to fulfill former President Abraham Lincoln’s promise “to care for him who shall have borne the battle” by serving and honoring America’s veterans. The department’s mission statement further boasts its “five core values underscore the obligations inherent in VA’s mission: Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect and Excellence.”

But given the shameful and insensitive treatment of many of this nation’s wounded warriors documented in numerous reports in recent months, the VA deserves no better than an F in each of those five core measurements.

Where is the integrity when doctors are told to falsify the number of patients they saw, as was reported in Fort Collins, Colo., and elsewhere?

Where is the commitment when it takes 278 days on average in Ohio to complete a veteran’s disability claim?

Where, as many credible sources allege, is the advocacy for veterans and their families when books are cooked to make the VA’s public image look healthy while ailing veterans’ physical conditions worsen?

Where is the respect when the VA has acknowledged at least 20 deaths nationwide due to delayed care, and the cause of dozens of other deaths are being similarly invetigated?

And where is the excellence when these and other problems may represent “just the tip of the iceberg” of more serious findings that U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., forecasts will come to light in his congressional panel’s investigation of the national program serving 9 million veterans?

KEEP POLITICS OUT OF PROBE

Clearly, problems persist in a department riddled with allegations and proven cases of irregularities and subpar delivery of care for many decades. Institutional problems require institutional solutions, up to and including the dismissal of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki if evidence so warrants.

But as the investigation begins, it must be predicated on an aggressive search for the scope of the maladies at VA and a concerted, specific and viable prescription to cure them. Above all else, the congressional probe cannot morph into yet another political football used to play dishonorable games at the expense of this nation’s highly honorable veterans.

Already, some right-wing analysts are drawing illogical parallels between problems with administering VA services with what they perceive to be the many failures of the Affordable Care Act. Both have a common end game: discrediting Commander In Chief Barack Obama in particular and all Democrats in general.

CAREGIVERS MERIT PRAISE

As the investigation proceeds, investigators must also keep a clear and narrow focus on the administration of the VA. To be fair, few veterans have complained about the quality of care once they have maneuvered the slow bureaucratic maze to receive it. That is a credit to the doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals who devote their lives to serving those who have so nobly served this nation. Any besmirching of administrative handling of caseloads should not be allowed to trickle down to that large group of respectable public servants.

The investigation must also place a premium on fairness. VA leaders have been overwhelmed with tens of thousands of veterans returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that have put record-setting strains on the department’s ability to deal with the myriad physical, emotional and mental ailments of the returnees.

At the same time, however, the VA cannot hide behind expansive caseloads as a failsafe excuse to explain away any lapses in judgment, unethical practices and shoddy treatment of veterans. Such subterfuge would do grave dishonor to the pledge of President Lincoln and to the millions of American veterans who have earned nothing short of fair treatment and superior care from a grateful nation.