VA Secretary Collins kicks off PVA Healthcare Summit + Expo
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins opened Paralyzed Veterans of America’s (PVA) Healthcare Summit + Expo on Monday morning with a deeply personal story.
He made sure spinal cord injury clinicians knew how important their care is now and can be down the road.
During his keynote address inside the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, Collins talked about how one of his three children, his daughter, Jordan, was born with spina bifida. In the first four years of her life, he says she had 30 surgeries and doctors weren’t sure she’d make it past age 30. But about four months ago, she celebrated her 33rd birthday.
He’s watched how, little by little, clinicians had to shave less of her head when they changed her shunt as a young child and how the treatments have improved over the years.
“And she grew older,” Collins says. “Why do I say that? It’s because you are on the cutting edge. You are here today and this week to learn what’s next, to take that next family who takes these steps or takes those first moves in a wheelchair, or takes those first moves after what happens with the diagnosis of ALS, and to take them into a future that they do not know of.”
Besides Collins, PVA National President and Chair of the Board Robert L. Thomas Jr., and PVA CEO Carl Blake also spoke, while Andrew Hansen, PhD, later delivered a keynote address called MADE to RECOVER — Practical Products Developed to Enhance Engagement and Reintegration of Veterans with SCI/D. Blake says he appreciated that the hundreds of clinicians, providers, spinal cord injured veterans and caregivers who work with those with spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D) turned out for the conference, which runs through Wednesday.
“Obviously, there’s been a lot of change with the VA this year, but one constant remains. And that’s the working commitment that you all have showed to our members, to the veterans who are served in the SCI/D system of care and their families and caregivers, who are sort of an extension of that. The fact is you all play an important role in the lives of people like myself, like Robert, our executive committee and our leadership that are here,” Blake says. “And in many ways, you all make it possible for us to continue to serve and do what we do today.”
Collins plans on improving the VA and reiterated that he’ll make sure clinicians have what they need, and he’ll do everything in his power to make sure the VA takes care of its veterans.
One of his main goals is to help improve VA hospital ratings. VA hospitals are rated between one and five stars based the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data from a standardized patient experience called the Veterans Health Administration Survey of Healthcare Experiences of Patients. Of the more than 150 VA hospitals, Collins says most are rated in the four- to five-star range but there are some in the three- and two-star range. And he’s issued challenged VA staff and in the central office.
“By the time I leave, hopefully, in a few years there will be no more threes and twos in the VA. There will only be fives and fours,” Collins says. “And the only way we’re going to do that is by the fives and fours helping the threes and twos. For my military folks in the room, does that not sound familiar? When you went into basic, you helped somebody who needed a little help.”
Collins says VA clinicians get to take care of the greatest population of those who raised their right hand and said, ‘Yes, I want to serve our country.’ And he believes its clinicians are important, too.
“I’ve been given the opportunity as a veteran, as one who’s served, as one who’s been in Congress to see that our greatest asset is an organization called the VA,” says Collins, who is a colonel in the Air Force Reserve and previously served in the Navy Reserve. “It’s an organization that takes care of veterans. It’s an organization that many of you have spent your life dedicated to. And all I’ll say is I’ll do this, I’ll commit to you that as secretary, my decisions every day are driven by one goal only … the VA is about one thing only, and that is the veteran first.”