Bureaucratic quagmire awaits VA nominee
Undersecretary is clear-eyed about challenges facing agency
Shulkin charged with implementing Trump’s changes on “Day One”
When a 51-yearold veteran drove to a Veterans Affairs clinic in New Jersey in March last year, doused himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire, the VA’s top health official, Undersecretary David Shulkin called caregivers at the clinic, allocated more clinical resources and ultimately removed the hospital director in charge of the clinic.
But those decisive actions weren’t triggered until nearly six weeks after the death of Gulf War veteran Charles Ingram. And they followed complaints from members of Congress, media reports and revelations by a whistle-blowing doctor that new veteran patients had to wait six months for appointments at the Northfield, N.J., VA clinic.
So illustrates the challenges ahead for Shulkin, Presidentelect Donald Trump’s pick to take over the VA. Even for someone with the best intentions, the sprawling bureaucracy between top-line leaders and front line VA caregivers can squelch and distort information, delay and even thwart improvement.
Twelve days after Ingram’s self-immolation in front of the clinic, when USA TODAY spoke with Shulkin, he was aware of the tragedy but thought Ingram wasn’t a patient there. He was.
A spokesman for Trump’s transition team, David White, said that the president-elect chose Shulkin because of his “unquestionable experience, knowledge and passion to bring much needed reform to the VA.. ...
“If confirmed, he will be ready to lead on Day One to enact President-elect Trump’s 10-point plan to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs,” White said.
That plan includes allowing veterans to get VA-paid care in the private sector if they choose. Currently, they can do that only if they can’t get a VA appointment within 30 days or live more than 40 miles from a VA facility.
USA TODAY spent several hours with Shulkin during the past year, and material gathered during those interviews provides a glimpse of who he is, what he may or may not do at the VA, and how he compares to VA Secretary Bob McDonald.
President Obama tapped McDonald to overhaul the agency in 2014 after revelations that VA employees in Phoenix kept secret wait lists, masking how long veterans were waiting for care and at least 40 died while they waited.
Since then, McDonald has repeatedly claimed that 90% of medical centers had new leadership teams — a USA TODAY investigation found that number inflated and misleading.
Shulkin comes off as authentic and can be unflinchingly candid.
Brandon Coleman, a counselor who revealed mistreatment of suicidal veterans at the Phoenix VA, said, “I want to see him work toward giving veterans’ choice, options in our health care, and holding administrators accountable.”
“If confirmed, he will be ready ... to enact Presidentelect Trump’s 10-point plan to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs.” David White, Trump transition team