Acting Secretary Sloan Gibson visited the Fayetteville, N.C. VA Medical Center yesterday and met with VA employees, Veterans Service Organizations and the media. It was the third medical facility Gibson visited since taking over as head of VA.

Gibson talked about his plan for VA to move forward and continue to serve Veterans. While fixes won’t come easy, according to Gibson, he is set on restoring the trust of all Veterans.

“We have to work to earn back the trust of each veteran and we’ll do that one veteran at a time,” Gibson said.

He said VA Central Office will continue to monitor information regarding wait times and appointments for all VA medical facilities, and will hold anyone who “gamed the system” accountable.

“As has become painfully obvious, we have systemic issues around scheduling,” Gibson said. “We also have instances where very serious allegations of improper behavior, breaches of integrity (and) violations of our core values that we have to deal with across our organization. … That willful misconduct will not be tolerated, and I will use whatever authority I have at my disposal to hold people accountable.”

 

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15 Comments

  1. Brian K Brice June 17, 2014 at 08:31

    I believe I am one of those veterans that the VA has done nothing about, I had severe left knee pain for years the VA finally got an MRI for me, the MRI Dr. who reads the MRIs noticed a my knee, but one was referred to sergeants at the VA, only thing they wanted to do was to put shots in my knee and send me to physical therapy, because the sergeants could not see the tear on the MRI. After at least a year of being in pain, I finally went to a specialist that only worked on knees, after explaining my symptoms, he knew exactly what was wrong, that was only Monday by Friday I was having surgery to fix the tear and the arthritis in my knee. The VA still hasn’t recognized that anything was ever wrong with my knee.

  2. Denise June 17, 2014 at 07:46

    if you had more veterans who care about veterans and the work they do to help other veterans then maybe the culture will change , you will have veterans who will speak up when something is not right at the va with no punishment if they whistleblow. you have people at the va not following the hiring process to just hire theyre friends . check out what is going on at the northport va hospital ,see how many family members are working at the hospital . if you need your family to get a job then it happens, by passing veterans with qualifications that need a job. Corruption at its best. Gotta check out all the va contracting work , repointinting the bricks at the northport va hospital for what , and the job was not completed, wonder who benefited from that contract?

  3. patrick jahnke June 16, 2014 at 18:39

    Why Dont u talk to the veterans! Why the those people who cover up the real problem. Why can’t u answer our question why did heath care went too the basement . and I still have leg pain. And the refuses listen to me. I have tens unit on full power it does not help! Give back those pain meds that work so we can live like person not antidepressant drugs make us zombies and have more problems to deal with.

  4. Denise June 16, 2014 at 07:35

    Why are my comments awaiting moderation ,the truth will set you free!

  5. Denise June 15, 2014 at 21:35

    posted a comment yesterday and you never kept it on for others to read , you are just a puppet that will do anything just to get your bonus money . Its funny that you wont post what i have to say so i will just go to other web sites to post what i know , remember that the truth will be told and in the end there is only one judge . the corruption that you people do at the VA. How about your hiring process and passing over veterans that are service connected and hiring non veterans because someone is related to a worker at that facility . just check out northport va hospital and the corruption that goes on there . how about the 5 million dollars that was spent at the Human Resources convention ? any of those individuals fired or where they promoted , sounds like how the post office works?

    • Yvonne Levardi June 16, 2014 at 10:10

      Denise, sorry about the delay … we let the comments go through moderation because we see quite a few that either have personal information or are spam, and we don’t usually moderate over the weekend.

  6. Barry Rice June 15, 2014 at 12:49

    After over twenty plus year dealing with the ever changing systems that the VA puts in place without informing the Veterans and the nasty exchanges I have with them every time I need to see a local doctor vrs having to drive the 100 miles to the nearest facility just to see a VA doctor. I am feed up with the ROs. Gibson thinks visiting a couple of facilities is going to change the continuing crush on Veterans is a joke. I believe an IG inspection with the ability to spot and change every VA facility is the only way anything may be done, but then they are more likely to go right back doing the substandard way of doing things as soon as any inspector leaves that facility. I’ll believe it when I see it. But then as we age and current way the VA is working, there will still be continuing culling just as before.

  7. denise June 14, 2014 at 21:18

    you must realize your workforce feels a sense of entitlement and could not give a crap about the veteran if they have never served. the level of dishonesty will continue , you spend 5 million on the hr conference and have employees dressing like General Patton , how many of those employees have been let go , in the end when God all mighty judges your crooks / so called care givers, the Judge will have the final say on the ones who treated the sick and ill like a piece of garbage. I doubt very highly that you will make a change ,the puppet you must be. Another good job by the Veterans Administration, all dishonest scum .

    • Yvonne Levardi June 16, 2014 at 10:12

      I’ll also tell you that many, many VA employees are very committed to serving Veterans – about 32% of us ARE Veterans – so we want to make sure things are done correctly and best for our Vets. As in any workplace, there are sadly sometimes those people whose ethics aren’t the best, but for the most part we all do our best to take care of Veterans.

      • Ken "the maddog" June 23, 2014 at 05:32

        I have to agree that my experiences in the VA facilities in Cleveland, Ohio have been mostly positive since 1968. But, the disability research/approval system certainly does need a great deal of help. It’s too bad that a few bad apples do spoil the whole basket!

    • Kevin Clark June 17, 2014 at 07:53

      I am so sorry that you feel that way about the VA. As a veteran and a VA Employee it hurts me to hear your words. Each day I come to work and give it my all to take care veterans. There is certainly room for inprovement and I believe that we will see improvement as a result of the scandal.

  8. david June 14, 2014 at 17:53

    he needs 2 check out the VA In Baltimore Maryland

  9. Norm W June 14, 2014 at 17:21

    You talk the talk; now, let’s see you walk the walk. Promises mean nothing, they are only words. It is the action that makes all the difference. And, for myself personally, I haven’t seen much of a difference from what it was before. They still schedule you far out and then make changes to the appointment so it looks like you just made in within the week before you are scheduled to actually see the doctors. The VA would make the syndicate look like girls scouts selling cookies.

  10. Anthony J. DeCarlo June 14, 2014 at 17:04

    The VA will never regain the trust of the veteran, a trust they haven’t had for years until the culture of VA employees is changed.

    • Ken June 14, 2014 at 18:03

      The claims backlog is another fiasco!

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