SAN ANTONIO – During his visit to the Audie Murphy VA Hospital on Friday, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Bob McDonald said that since his confirmation last July, 700 people have been fired in the wake of a scandal over lengthy scheduling delays for veterans needing medical attention.
"There's everything from manipulating scheduling to theft, so everything, the entire gamut," McDonald said.
The former head of Proctor and Gamble said although the vast majority of VA employees are committed to helping America's veterans, the message is clear.
"That's what we're going to do. We're going to take disciplinary action as quickly and as aggressively as we possibly can," McDonald said.
He said the Department of Veterans Affairs is now hiring thousands of doctors and nurses, thanks to the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014.
"We have the budget to add medical staff," McDonald said.
He said the VA also is using local providers, especially for veterans without a VA clinic nearby.
McDonald said reducing wait times helps accommodate walk-ins and emergencies.
He said as an example, the VA saw 335,270 appointments from June to November of last year and that the agency is upgrading its level of customer service, for instance by consolidating its websites, now in the works.
"We are going to go to one website, one username, one password," McDonald said.
McDonald said he believes the VA is making progress in overcoming what he confronted when he became secretary.
"We had significant problems with access, with transparency, with accountability and integrity," McDonald said.
He said veterans can judge the changes for themselves.
McDonald said, "In the end, it's that single metric that will be the judge of what we do."
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs also said the VA has a review underway at all its facilities to address security concerns in the wake of Tuesday's shooting at a VA clinic in El Paso.
A staff psychologist was killed by a patient who later took his own life.
