Does the Government have what it takes to fix the VA?

I could not have said it better than myself. I have worked at a VA Medical Center before, and I consulted to my supervisor of having PTSD. As an employee, I even gave my supervisor, a psychologist some documents and tips on how to work best with Veterans with PTSD. The clinician said, "What is this for"? I said to her, To work with me and be understanding of what condition I have. I had several supervisors to answer too. It blew me away how some of the top VA administration officials were not educated about PTSD and even did not show any empathy at all. Non supportive, and did not give a damn. Not all of the VA is bad. There are great employees at the VA and those are the employees who make a difference. VA employees would be evaluated twice a year on their work performance. The good employees are the ones the VA need to keep. The employees with the bad evaluations, those are the ones the VA needs to get rid off. What I also observed and witnessed, is the "good ole boy system". Other VA employees would look out for their own and sweep it under the rug. The job is based on merit, not on the culture. Also, my supervisor,
the psychologist, she had never served in the Armed Forces, but was well not for her research projects, and had made a name for herself some what. I told her, Mam, let me break it down for you, all of those books you have read about Veterans with mental health issues. What you know is just what you have read and learn. What you read in that book is about me. I am in that book. A typically description of a Veteran with PTSD.

No they don't. They are to big and everything they try to correct anything they end up tripping over themselves.

CPT Sean Mathews , a couple of issues with hiring process. Some of the archaic hiring preferences you reference are mandates that were hard fought by veterans who have served before us. Unfortunately, enforcement of hiring preferences is very slim. The courts have made it so very easy for a selecting official to pass over a more qualified veteran candidate. As for the hiring and firing at will. Hiring at will is budget restricted. Ideally, for example in the hospital environment, a department manager, or "Service Chief" has developed an organizational chart which was approved, thereby it should be funded. However, when the hospital leadership sees budget shortfalls throughout the facility, they began to slow down the hiring process for other service chiefs. Many of these service chiefs are working well below adequate staffing levels. But yet, the demand doesn't change. Imagine the reality I faced as a Service Chief, with cost of goods increasing, patient demand increasing and the facility leadership indicating that I must operate with a 4 or 5% reduction from previous year's budget, how do I reconcile the three. As I told my leadership several times, not a problem, once all the bandages are gone because you reduced my budget, just shut the door and don't let any more patients in. It's ridiculous to expect a social program to operate on such restricted budget limitations. However, let's look at the friggin' trinkets they use to recruit staff, or the lunches/picnics they put together in hopes of improving employee morale (don't get me wrong, I too believe a happy employee is a productive employee), training conferences where the staff stay in 4 or 5 star hotels, all meals provided, social programs in the evening sometimes provided, travel pay and time off for those hours of travel when it should have been your day off (i.e. traveling on a Sunday). Or the off station "retreats" sometimes at posh resorts. How about reducing the amount of money we spend on fuel for the hundreds of vehicles we have in the motor fleet? The list can go on, but I'm tired.