The Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which operates within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), oversees the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, but a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report is calling on the agency to set clear performance goals to improve rural veterans’ health.
VHA’s Office of Rural Health funds research and initiatives aimed at improving the health of veterans living in rural areas across the nation. However, GAO says that the Office of Rural Health has yet to develop performance goals that outline the level of performance the office aims to achieve during a particular year.
“For example, while the office collects data on the number of clinicians trained through its funded initiatives and research projects, it had not defined how many clinicians should be trained each year to achieve its strategic goal of reducing health care workforce disparities,” the report says.
“By developing performance goals that reflect leading practices, the office can determine which strategic goals may need additional focus or resources to ultimately improve rural veterans’ health and well-being,” it adds.
For instance, GAO said that the office could use the performance goals and data from related performance measures to “determine which strategic objectives and strategic goals may need additional focus or resources to ultimately improve rural veterans’ health and well-being.”
In a May 2023 report, GAO recommended that the VHA office develop these detailed performance goals. VA concurred with the recommendation, and as of October 2023, the office began taking steps to develop performance goals to include in its 2025 – 2029 strategic plan.
VA estimated that the office will finalize its strategic plan by June 2024. GAO said it will continue to monitor the VA’s efforts to implement its recommendations.
Alyssa M. Hundrup, a director in GAO’s Health Care, shared the report’s updates with the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Jan. 11 during a hearing focused on rural healthcare access.
