83 percent of facility leaders cited delays in the hiring and on-boarding for care outside the VA system. Image: Jennifer Vinciguerra/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe length of the hiring process is the main difficulty for the VA in filling medical support assistant positions—who process referrals for veterans to obtain care outside the VA system—and burnout and overwork are the main challenge in keeping those who are on board, an IG audit has said.
In examining how well the department oversees staffing for those positions, the IG polled facility leaders, with 83 percent pointing to delays in the hiring/onboarding process as a barrier in recruiting. On the retention end, 87 percent named “burnout/workload is too heavy.”
Other factors in what the IG called “persistent” understaffing in those positions included the complexity of the work, noncompetitive salaries, and the attraction of other positions within VA offering better promotional opportunities.
The IG added that facilities are responding by using incentive payments, while most of the leaders said they consider making telework more readily available both a recruitment and a retention tool—a practice that continued for that reason even as the pandemic eased.
Regarding the main thrust of the audit, the IG found issues with the completeness and reliability of data to assess staffing levels. “Despite these data limitations, facility community care leaders generally identified local staffing needs, and their resource management committees authorized the requested staff,” it said.
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