The Veterans Health Administration lacks an effective staffing methodology to ensure appropriate staffing levels for specialty care services, the VA inspector general has said.
After investigating whether VHA has an effective methodology for determining physician staffing levels for 33 of VHA’s specialty care services, it concluded that VHA did not establish productivity standards for all specialties and VA medical facility management did not develop staffing plans.
This occurred because there is a lack of agreement within VHA on how to develop a methodology to measure productivity, and current VHA policy does not provide sufficient guidance on developing medical facility staffing plans, the IG said.
It said the VHA generally agreed with recommendations to establish productivity standards for at least five specialty care services by the end of fiscal 2013, approve a plan that ensures all specialty care services have productivity standards within three years, as well as to provide medical facility management with specific guidance on development and annual review of staffing plans.