Assessment of Organization’s SWOT

Assignment Overview

he Veterans Health Administration

From the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website (www.va.gov), the following sheds light on this giant organization.

Facts about the Department of Veterans Affairs:

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was established on March 15, 1989. It succeeded the Veterans Administration and has responsibility for providing federal benefits to veterans and their dependents. Headed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the VA is the second largest of the 14 Cabinet departments and operates nationwide programs of health care, financial assistance, and national cemeteries.
Of the 48.9 million veterans currently living, more than three of every four served during a war or an official period of hostility. About a quarter of the nation’s population, approximately 81 million people, are potentially eligible for VA benefits and services because they are veterans, family members of veterans, or survivors of veterans.
The responsibility to care for veterans, spouses, survivors, and dependents can last a long time. The last dependent of a Revolutionary War veteran died in 1911. The War of 1812’s last dependent died in 1946, and the Mexican War’s in 1962. About 547 children and widows of Spanish-American War veterans still receive VA compensation or pensions.
In the fiscal year of 2019, the VA estimated spending was $198.6 billion, which was an increase of $12.1 billion from fiscal year 2018.
Medical Care

VHA operates one of the largest health care systems in the world and provides training for a majority of America’s medical, nursing, and allied health professionals. Roughly 60 percent of all medical residents obtain a portion of their training at VA hospitals; and VA medical research programs benefit society at-large.
The VA health care system has grown from 54 hospitals in 1930 to 1,600 health care facilities today, including 144 VA Medical Centers and 1,232 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity.
To receive VA health care benefits, most veterans must enroll. More than 20 million veterans are enrolled in the VA health care system as of October 2015. When they enroll, they are placed in priority groups or categories to help VA manage health care services within budgetary constraints and to provide quality care to those enrolled.
Some veterans are exempted from having to enroll, although all veterans are encouraged to enroll to help VA plan its health care needs and provide better preventive and primary services. Veterans who do not have to enroll include veterans with a service-connected disability of 50 percent or more, veterans who were discharged from the military within one year but have not yet been rated for a VA disability benefit, and veterans seeking care for only a service-connected disability.
VA manages the largest medical education and health professions training program in the United States. VA facilities are affiliated with 107 medical schools, 55 dental schools, and more than 1,200 other schools across the country. Each year, about 81,000 health professionals are trained in VA medical centers. More than half of the physicians practicing in the United States have had part of their professional education in the VA health care system.
VA’s medical system also serves as a backup to the Defense Department during national emergencies and as a federal support organization during major disasters.
Since 1979, VA’s Readjustment Counseling Service has operated Vet Centers, which provide psychological counseling for war-related trauma, community outreach, case management and referral activities, plus supportive social services to veterans and family members. There are 206 Vet Centers.
Since the first Vet Center opened, approximately 1.6 million veterans have been helped. Every year, the Vet Centers serve over 126,000 veterans and handle at least 900,000 visits from veterans and family members.
Vet Centers are open to any veteran who served in the military in a combat theater during wartime or anywhere during a period of armed hostilities. Vet Centers also provide trauma counseling to veterans who were sexually assaulted or harassed while on active duty.
VA provides health care and benefits assistance to more than 100,000 homeless veterans each year. While the proportion of veterans among the homeless is declining, VA actively engages veterans in outreach, medical care, benefits assistance, and transitional housing services. VA has made more than 300 grants for transitional housing, service centers, and vans for outreach and transportation to state and local governments, tribal governments, and non-profit community and faith-based service providers.
Programs for alcoholism, drug addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder have been expanded in recent years, along with attention to environmental hazards.
Indispensable to providing America’s veterans with quality medical care are more than 94,754 volunteers in VA’s Voluntary Service who donate more than 13 million hours of service each year to bring companionship and care to hospitalized veterans.