Having spent the first three months of his tenure at the Department of Veterans Affairs conducting a thorough personal review of operations, Secretary Robert McDonald unveiled his plans to reorganize the agency Nov. 10. Included are establishment of a department-wide customer service organization headed by a chief customer service officer who would report directly to him. McDonald also called for a “single regional framework,” which would streamline partnerships within VA and “customer service” to veterans. His plan includes better coordination with community veterans’ groups nationwide, and a realignment of the internal business process to “improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase productivity.” McDonald also has fired some of the department’s top-echelon managers, whose actions he determined had undermined the agency and predicated the circumstances that fostered allegations of falsified progress reports. The concealed indifference or incompetence, which first surfaced in media reports about the Phoenix VA medical treatment facility, led to poor service and the deaths of some veterans who were waiting for their benefits. McDonald also plans to fire civil-service employees who may have been responsible for bad service, but discussed in recent media interviews the difficulty he faces in doing so. In a Nov. 9 interview, he told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that many of the employees targeted for termination remain on administrative leave until their appeals processes are complete.