dr. carolyn clancy on my left and dr. jonathan, the former under secretary health, and now the chief medical officer at hca, one of the largest medical providers in the country, helped us lay out this blueprint. themes, 10 essential strategies, to help us simultaneously import the performance -- improve the performance at v.a. health care now, develop a positive culture, transition from sick care to health care, and develop efficient, transparent, accountable, agile business and management processes. and to increase timely access to care, we are recruiting to hire more clinicians. as part of that effort, i have proposed increase in the minimum and maximum rates of annual pay for eligible v.a. positions, with more competitive salaries. better position to retain those who are performing at a high level. allill judge the success of of our efforts against a single metric, and that is veterans outcomes. we don't want to be a to meet a standard. we want v.a. recognized as the standard in providing health care and benefits. i kn

dr. clancy can talk more before the this. this is of particular -- area of interest to her. >> i would agree with everything the secretary just said, and it is a very high priority for us. it has changed a lot in recent years. we're not going to slow down until every single facility has got a top-notch women's health coordinator. all of our health coordinators across the system dot reinforcement of the training to get to make sure we're meeting those needs and it will remain a high priority. so thank you for thundershower unioned support. we can see where the numbers are going, as the sect just noted. >> mr. jolly. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. secretary. welcome. we haven't had an opportunity to meet. i echo my colleagues' meshes. thank you for serve. >> i look forward to getting together with you soon. >> my predecessor was here for 43 years, and one of your predecessor's said, please don't take this job, you can never change the va. i know the challenge you face. i appreciate your comments today. i want to express a litt

dr. clancy said, we have a management review service. they are responsible for looking at that and making sure that all the correct sungt matter experts look at that report and if there's anything factually they think needs to be corrected, they provide that information. what we also do is making sure that all the subject matter experts come together to identify what is the corrective action that's needed. so that we can meet the needs of veterans. the communications folks that report to me were doing that every iteration. so each iteration of the report we were trying to highlight for them what was the difference from the last report to the next report so that they could accurately and very efficiently get a communication plan together. one of those changes was the change from 28 recommendations to 24. the consolidation of a number of the individual recommendations regarding ethics were rolled into one. highlighting those makes it easier for them to be more responsive to have a document that's pulled together so we can communicate to al

dr. carolyn clancy on my left and dr.jonathan perlynn, former under secretary for health and now chief medical officer at hca, one of the largest medical providers in the country, helped us lay out this blueprint. four broad themes, sen essential strategies, to help us simultaneously improve the performance of vha health care now, develop a positive culture, transition from sick care to health care in the broadest sense and develop efficient transparent accountable, agile business and management processes. and to increase timely access to care, we're recruiting to hire more clinicians. as part of that effort, i've proposed increases to the minimum and maximum rates for eligible va physicians and dentist. more competitive salaries we'll be in better position to track and hire more health care providers to treat veterans and in better position to retain those who are performing at a high level. we will judge the success of all of our efforts against a single metric, that's veteran outcomes. we don't want va to meet a standa

dr. clancy to clarify my comments. it's not just any commission. it's a commission that does this kind of work for a living. >> as soon as we hear the word commission, we look for who is hiding. >> it's about benchmarking best practices. this commission does this across the country and will help us information best practices in all facilities, not just the 93 the ig is looking at. we plan to use this commission to improve. it's unfortunate their name is commission. >> just to expand for one moment. they acredit private hospital. they cannot get paid if they're not accredited. this is following a standard practice in the private sector. these are unannounced surveyed. we have put a huge amount of effort into making thur schedulers are trained. we're looking for ways to get exceptions to get their grades increased as the secretary indicated. but this is also going to be looking at is it really working, how does patient flow work? what happens to people who wait in the emergency room who leave because they have been waiting too long and so forth? it's

dr. clancy to clarify my comments. but it's not just any commission. it's a commission that does this kind of work for a living and -- >> i'm full of commissions. and as soon as we hear the word commission, we all start looking for who is hiding. >> it's not about hiding. it's about benchmarking best practices. and this commission does this across the country and will help us understand best practices in all facilities, not just the 93 that the ig is looking at. so we plan to use this commission to improve. it's unfortunate their name is commission, but that's -- >> so just to expand for one moment, they do credit the vast majority of private sector hospitals? in fact, they do not get paid by medicare and medicaid if they're not so this is following a standard practice in the private sector. this is going to be unannounced surveys. so we have put a huge amount of effort into making sure the schedulers are trained, we're looking for ways to get exceptions to get their grades increased. but this is going to be looking at is it really working? how does pa

dr. clancy, thank you very much for being with us. thank you very much for the hard work that you're putting in right now and for the changes that we're seeing. this hearing ining is now adjou. >>> the senate homeland security held a hearing today examining the use of military equipment sales by local police. members heard from defense, justice and homeland security officials, including the defense secretary for acquisition, technology and low gustics. he defended his department's transfer of like-new military equipment over to local police departments. here's part of what he had to say. >> i want to clear up -- make sure that the record is clear in response to a question from congress to the defense logistics agency. 33% of the property issued is new and not used. in other words, almost 40% of what you're giving away has never been used by the military. >> and i apologize for shaking my head earlier. they said condition code a, that's like new. >> we could argue about brand new, new or like new. what in the world are we doing buying

dr. clancy and i are prepared to take her presence at this time. >> mr., thank you very much for being here for your patiencts and hearing the discussion of the inspector general, and i'm paraphrasing a member who said that you have hit the ground sprinting, which is exactly what this committee wanted from you, and we appreciate that very much. i want to reiterate a point that you just made, and that is that the vast majority of v.a. employees -- this is the case in vermont and all over the country hardrk tirelessly and very to do everything they can for our veterans. we should never forget that. and we should also not forget that while we are focusing today on the issue of timeliness and the need to make sure that every veteran in this country gets imely care, we also know that can tell you absolutely in vermont that most veterans believe the care they are getting once they are in the system is of high quality and they appreciate the care they are getting and the work that their staff is doing. is, in a sensedo you talked about this in your opening remarks, but let's focus on three or four

clancy,companied by dr. interim undersecretary. your entire statement will be made part of the hearing record. we would like to say welcome to you. we look forward to working with you in the future. you are now recognized for your opening statement. >> thank you, chairman miller. i look forward to working with you and the committee to improve the department of veterans affairs to provide the kind of care our veterans deserve. and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the response to the recent report on phoenix. offer my personal apologies to all veterans who experienced unacceptable delays in receiving care. it is clear we failed in that respect. regardless of the fact the report on phoenix could not conclusively tie deaths to to fixingam committed this problem and providing high-quality care veterans have earned and deserve. that is how we will regain veterans trust and the trust of the american people. the final oig report on phoenix has been issued. we have concurred with all 24 of the recommendatio