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Matt McClellan
Professor David R. DiSarro
ENG101
14 August 2014
The Poor State of Veterans Affairs
The time has come for the government to take action and revise this poorly run entity.
When most people think about veterans affairs hospitals, they think, here is this great program
the government has set up with government run hospitals and doctors, to specifically help
current and former disabled employees. Providing hospitals with doctors on staff specifically
for employees and former employees, is a wonderful concept most employers have not taken
into consideration. People are under the impression, when they join the military to serve their
country, they will be given the appropriate care for any ailments or life changing events that
may come upon them during their time in service.
The fact of the matter is, the government currently has little knowledge of how this
program is conducting business. Recently, there have been numerous events brought to light in
the news. The Department of Veterans Affairs has come under heavy scrutiny for long wait
times and poor treatment to veterans with life threatening disabilities. There has allegedly
been a secret list of veterans put on waiting list for long periods of time, some more than six
months (Knittle 2014). The problem is many of these veterans have life threatening issues they
received while fighting for this country. Accusations have surfaced reporting individuals have
died while on this secret list waiting for treatment (Carcamo 2014). Just recently three
congressmen from Arizona wrote a letter to The Veterans Affairs Secretary, Eric K. Shinseki,
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calling for the removal of the Phoenix VA Director, Sharon Helman. Shinseki took matters a
step further and, along with Helman, put Associate Director Lance Robinson and a third
unnamed representative on administrative leave (Carcamo 2014). In fact there are a number of
senators calling for Shinseki, a disabled veteran himself, to also resign(Carcamo 2014).
Shinseki has come under fire for letting the organization slip as far as it has. There are
many questions left unanswered and too many officials running these programs
unrestricted. They seem to be making their own rules without any ramifications and no other
leading official to answer to. According to David Espo, an outside agency called Republican-
supporting Crossroads GPS, reported there are 1,700 former members of the service seeking
hard-to-get appointments at the Phoenix VA hospital never had been placed on the official
waiting list and were at risk of being forgotten(Espo 2014).
There are some that argue money is the problem. There are many new veterans coming
in, because the country is fighting in so many different wars and conflicts. The other issue is
these new veterans are coming in with very difficult problems. They are not coming for colds
and scratches. These men and women are coming because they lost appendages and saw good
friends get blown up in front of them by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). This is a valid
point, with new wars come new problems. Along with the current veterans coming in for
treatment, the VA is seeing a great deal of older veterans are coming in that are just realizing
they have a problem, or have had a problem and did not realize it, or are tired of living with the
problems they have had since their time in service. Some as far back as the Vietnam War are
just now coming forward. I know my father, who hates doctors in general, and would never go
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see one under his own power, has lived with difficulties from Vietnam most of his life. Now is
probably a bad time for these older veterans to come forward, but when you are done, you are
done. If they cannot live with the pain any longer, they should be able to get treatment
regardless of the amount of new veterans using the service.
The government does not believe it is a financial issue because according to Rep. Jeff
Miller (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, its an "issue of manipulation
and mismanagement (Simon 2014)." On CNN, Rep. Miller goes on to say "If money was the
issue, this problem would have been solved a long time ago, (Simon 2014)"
Many veterans groups are saying the budget increase was not enough to support the
type and amount of problems current veterans are facing. According to these previously
mentioned veterans groups there are two million new veterans coming in to VA hospitals for
treatment, and the budget increase was not sufficient to support these numbers (Simon
2014). The belief is congress is trying to use this as a political playing card to swing votes in the
respective parties direction.
The point I am trying to make, is these men and women need to get the attention they
deserve, instead the government dropped the ball. I agree with the action taken thus far, that
removed key individuals from their current rolls, or fired them on the spot. The current leaders
of this organization have been out of control for too long. This needed to happen to start the
rebuilding process. In my opinion, another layer of bureaucracy may need to be removed
before new processes can be put in place.
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There is a VA hospital in Oklahoma seems to have a process in place that benefits the
veterans seeking immediate help. According to Andrew Knittle, Dr. Mark Huycke, chief of staff
at the Oklahoma City hospital, said there is no waiting list for sick veterans at his facility
(Knittle 2014). Huycke, has apparently worked out an agreement with local civilian hospitals
and clinics that enables the VA hospital to off load some of the patients with aliments
appropriate for these other facilities to handle, and lightening the work load on his team. This
allows Huyckes hospital to handle the more difficult and severe cases in a timely manner. For
example if a veteran comes to our hospital with thoughts of suicide, that veteran will be seen
by our mental health staff that day and will not have to wait to be seen another day for an
appointment (Knittle 2014).
This seems to be a valid course of action. Outsource some of the work load to the
civilian hospitals and clinics. The government may need to research some of the staff at these
VA hospitals also. It seems some of the employees at these facilities did not intend to speak
out about the abusive issues they encountered on a daily basis for fear of punishment. The
ones that did choose to stand for what their believed in were reprimanded for their behavior
(Carcamo 2014).







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References
Andrew Knittle (2014) Tulsa World. OKC VA hospital avoids wait lists Retrieved from
http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy18.noblenet.org/hottopics/lnacademic/?
Cindy Carcamo (2014) The Los Angeles Times. THE NATION; VA hospital inquiry intensifies; At least 40
veterans died awaiting treatment at Phoenix facility, which hid the delays, workers
say. Retrieved from http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy18.noblenet.org/hottopics/lnacademic/?
David Espo (2014) Associated Press. Seeking Political Gain Over VA Issues. Retrieved from
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/05/30/seeking-political-gain-over-va-issues.html
Fastcheck.org (2014) American Crossroads/Crossroads GPS Retrieved from
http://www.factcheck.org/2014/02/american-crossroadscrossroads-gps-2/
NPR.ORG (2011) By The Numbers: Today's Military. Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/03/137536111/by-the-numbers-todays-military
Richard Simon (2014) The Los Angeles Times. THE NATION; Some lawmakers want criminal inquiry of
VA; Justice Department needs to look into the scandal, members of both parties say. Retrieved
from http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy18.noblenet.org/hottopics/lnacademic/?
Richard Simon (2014) The Los Angeles Times. White House report slams VA
Retrieved from http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy18.noblenet.org/hottopics/lnacademic/


I think you bring several relevant and excellent points here, but what is the solution? What should be
done? Is it more doctors? More outsourcing to private practices, but with government insurance
providers? Is it a new type of treatment? Posing what the problems or challenges are is only the first step
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next, you need to give us some plausible ways of fixing things (i.e. demonstrate that this is really a
problem, how it can be fixed, and that whatever course you are suggesting is, in fact, the best course).
Good, though these need to be in alphabetical order, double-spaced, and the second and third lines of
each entry need to be indented.

Matt
I think youve got a strong draft here in terms of establishing that there is a problem with
the Veterans Affairs system, and some of the causes and excuses used; however, there is
little introduced in terms of a solution and how what you might suggest is the best course of
action. See margin comments for more details.
~D.





A slightly longer paper (approximately 5 6 pages) where students will choose a specific
product, program, practice, policy, or service currently being debated (such as energy drinks,
universal healthcare, the use of Wikipedia as an academic source, employers checking the
Facebook profiles of employees, etc.), interrogate the common perceptions surrounding their
topic, and argue for a particular position in order to persuade others. Students will be required to
address the possible counterarguments of their chosen topic and must utilize outside
research. Students also have the option to compose a video essay for this assignment.










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