Veteran trust in VA reaches all-time high

 WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced Veteran trust in VA reached 80% in April, reflecting a 19% increase since January 2017. 

Each quarter Veterans Signals (VSignals), VA’s customer experience feedback program, randomly surveys approximately 257,000 Veterans with recent interactions VA-wide with claims, appeals, health care, memorials and other services to rate their overall trust in VA. 

This VA-wide trust survey compliments the previously reported Veteran trust survey focused specifically on VA outpatient health care only which reached 90% for the first time on April 12. The monthly average of Veteran trust in VA outpatient health care increased to 90.1% for the month of May. 

“These survey results show VA is listening to the voice of the Veteran and taking decisive actions,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “Customer feedback continues to drive improvements in the way VA provides care and services.” 

The VA-wide quarterly trust survey also asks Veterans to rate VA’s ease of use, effectiveness and its staff’s ability to provide an empathetic experience. The most recent VA-wide survey saw a 2% increase in effectiveness to 78%, a 3% increase in ease of use to 75% and a 3% increase in empathy to 77%. 

VSignals currently has 35 wide-ranging surveys in use across VA and the feedback gained from the more than 5 million surveys received since January 2017 are used in real-time to resolve concerns, answer questions, record compliments and share recommendations. VA began measuring Veteran trust in the second quarter of fiscal year 2016. 

Since 2017, VSignals has referred more than 2,755 Veterans to the Veterans Crisis Line (1-800-273-8255 and Press 1) or the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans (1-877-424-3838) as needed or requested. 

In June 2019, VA was designated as Lead Agency Partner for the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goal on Improving Customer Experience with Federal Services.