COVID-19

Today, I’m announcing ten steps that we’re taking to invest in you: our incredible workforce.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care is expanding its Home-Based Primary Care, Medical Foster Home and Veteran-Directed Care programs to make them available at all VA medical centers by the end of fiscal year 2026.

Effective Jan. 14, the Department of Veterans Affairs is delaying the scheduled deployment of its new electronic health record effort at the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases affecting the workforce and community.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs disbursed $20 million in American Rescue Plan funds, Dec. 21, 2021, to VA Medical Centers to provide critical and life-saving emergency assistance to Veterans experiencing homelessness or those enrolled in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has started administering Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine boosters under Emergency Use Authorization.

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough will expand his previous COVID-19 vaccine mandate Friday, Aug. 13, to apply to most Veterans Health Administration employees and volunteers and contractors who work in VHA facilities, visit VHA facilities or otherwise come into contact with VA patients and healthcare workers as part of their duties.

July 26 Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough announced he will make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for Title 38 VA health care personnel — including physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, registered nurses, physician assistants, expanded-function dental auxiliaries and chiropractors — who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit VHA facilities or provide direct care to those VA serves.

For over three decades now, you all have been doing a lot of heavy lifting to get services and benefits to Veterans who have earned them and deserve them. By the way, when COVID hit, County Veterans Service Officers continued to do that critical work, continued to be that critical connection.

The mission of EHRM has always been to create a platform that seamlessly delivers the best access and outcomes for our Vets, and the best experience for our providers.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding COVID-19 vaccinations for some 12- to 17-year-olds as part of the SAVE LIVES Act.

If we’re talking about Veterans’ legal challenges, by definition we’re talking about their health care, about their well-being. Because Veteran well-being is about more than health care. It’s about more than benefits. And as good as VA clinicians are—in fact, they are the best in the world, we’re seeing that every day—they can’t fix Veterans’ legal challenges. Only access to good legal assistance can do that.

We’ve got a lot of good ideas, a lot of good services, a lot of good programs, and a lot of good people. But what we need to strengthen is our collective effort, our collective engagement of ideas, services, programs, and people. Our goal is to continue and advance collaborative engagement unified by a single vision, strategy, a lot of heart.