Federal Managers Association

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• VA SERVICES IN MORE DEMAND BUT CONTINUE TO LOSE HEALTH-CARE PROVIDERS - August 2, 2016

• Loss of VA health-care providers grows as demand for care increases. Will service suffer?

  By Joe Davidson, Washington Post

  Two trend lines in veterans’ health care are not encouraging.

  Demand for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) services is going up, but so are losses among the agency’s health-care providers.

  Annual VA outpatient medical appointments rose by 20 percent, or 17.1 million visits from fiscal 2011 through 2015, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

  But also increasing during that period was the number of staffers in five critical occupations who left the agency. In 2011, 5,897 physicians, registered nurses, physician assistants, psychologists and physical therapists said goodbye. By 2015, that number had grown to 7,734. The rate of loss rose from 7.3 percent to 8.2 percent. The GAO said similar problems affect other health-care organizations because of national shortages and increased competition for clinical employees.

  To read more please click here

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