Veterans Affairs might be useful against virus

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released its COVID19 response plan and gave us a glimpse at the kind of comprehensive military approach this crisis has needed for weeks.

The 257-page document describes a dramatic mobilization of the nation’s largest health care system to augment civilian hospitals in the event that they are overwhelmed by the crisis. That is the fourth mission of the VA: “to improve the nation’s preparedness for response to war, terrorism, national emergencies and natural disasters.”

Following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the VA ramped up its role as the health care system of last resort. It drafted contingency plans for natural disasters, military attacks and pandemics. Until Friday, only one of those contingency plans had been made public — one for an outbreak of the flu, last updated in 2006.

The VA’s COVID-19 plan unfolds in four phases.

Phase 1: Contingency planning and training. The department says it has been running drills for COVID-19 response since January.

Phase 2: Initial response. This is where the department finds itself now: prioritizing care for veterans with COVID-19 and shifting resources to make room for more.

Phase 3: Establishing alternative sites of care. This is the phase in which the VA could surge its capacities to backstop civilian health care systems.

Phase 4: Sustainment operations and recovery. This phase is triggered when the supply of medical services catches up with demand, and public health officials announce that the crisis is beginning to wane.

All of this may seem too nWe would have liked to see the VA’s COVID-19 plan sooner, before the country found itself on the threshold of Phase 3. But now that it’s out, we’re encouraged by it.

In the absence of other coherent, national leadership to address this crisis, that kind of decisive, organized plan is reassuring.

The Dallas Morning News