Getting care and access for vets: Denis McDonough leading the VA
The VA established the Veterans Crisis Line under Sec. McDonough’s leadership as a way for veterans to connect quickly with crisis support 24/7.
WASHINGTON − It’s one of the most iconic photos from Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House: There’s the president, looking grave in the Situation Room as he and a small group of aides watch a live feed of the special operations forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The small room is packed with two Cabinet secretaries, top generals and Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden. And there, sitting opposite Obama, just to the right of Hillary Clinton, his eyes – like everyone else’s – riveted to the screen, is Denis McDonough.
McDonough was deputy national security adviser when Navy SEALs descended on the terrorist mastermind’s lair in Pakistan. He went on to serve as Obama’s chief of staff, where he spent four years running the executive branch.
With that resume, the clean-cut Minnesotan could have scored many jobs at the dawn of Joe Biden’s presidency. Instead, Biden appointed him to take the reins of the Department of Veterans Affairs, where McDonough promised to restore trust in a perpetually maligned agency that has faced long-standing criticism.
“I just remember watching what we were able to witness there and thinking to myself: ‘I wish the country could see what I can see,’” McDonough, 54, told USA TODAY, recalling the Bin Laden raid. “There’s so much second guessing whether the country can do big things and I’ve seen time again − that night and here at VA − that we do big things and we do them well.”
McDonough is entering his fourth year leading the largest integrated health care network in the country, fighting for the same men and women he watched deploy to war zones as a top national security and presidential aide.
But it hasn’t been without challenges. McDonough has been tasked with handling a tsunami of benefit claims after the rollout of the biggest expansion to veterans benefits in decades, providing care during a global pandemic, reducing backlogs of claims, addressing hot-button social issues and modernizing records to standardize quality of care.
Through it all, McDonough says his mission has remained the same: Be transparent, be accountable and fight like hell for vets.
“Our job is to make sure that they get access to the care and the benefits that they’ve earned and that’s what we do here every day,” he said. “Not always perfectly, that’s for darn sure. But we take it deadly seriously.”
‘Running to the problems’
The VA has a muddy track record when it comes to caring for the 9 million enrolled veterans.
The agency for decades has received complaints over inadequate health care, wait times for benefits and excessive spending.
The VA saw two secretaries and three acting secretaries during former President Donald Trump’s single term. The turmoil of VA leadership during the Trump administration − which led to Trump firing one VA secretary via Twitter − aligned with several controversies related to ethics violations and fighting among senior leaders.
But the VA has long vexed secretaries of both parties. Now, it’s McDonough’s turn as he faces challenges including high rates of veteran suicide, continued backlogs, problems transitioning to electronic health records and finding ways to establish relationships with veterans who are new to the VA system as benefits expand.
McDonough has been straightforward from the start − success at the VA is measured by whether veterans feel like they’re getting timely access to world-class health care and the benefits they’ve earned.
“We do that by running to the problems, not away from them,” he told USA TODAY.
Hacking away at the backlog
The VA is also working to tackle a continued backlog of benefits claims. As of mid-February, around 387,000 claims have been pending…
This article was originally published by a www.usatoday.com . Read the Original article here. .