dr. schohn might speak to this. we ref piloting this and i would be happy to answer further. >> thank you. yes, as part of our response to the committee in november, we planned to develop a staffing model. the staffing model -- >> i'm sorry, you planned to develop a staffing plan, it's not yet in place. >> no, no, we did develop the staffing model but we submitted to you that that was part of our action plan in november. we developed the staffing model and we're in the process of implementing it in 14 and 22 to understand how to you interpret so we don't want to just simply say here's a number of staff without actually a plan for how this rolled out, is this right number of staff to really evaluate how well and how effective this method ol is. our plan, however, also is not to wait until we get a full evaluation of this plan but basically to staff up so that we'll be fully ready to implement this plan throughout the country by the end of the fiscal year. so we will have -- we are planning -- the plan itself is based

dr. schohn, at this committee's november mental health hearing you said you were not aware of any facilities that were gaming the system. and not fully reporting waiting times. you heard mr. tolentino's testimony about the manchester va regularly using loopholes to artificially meet their mental health performance measures. often at the direct expense of veteran care. so now that you've read the ig report and performed your own audit of mental health practices at var va facilities and you've listened to his testimony, i want to ask you the same question today that i asked you in november. do you believe that va facilities are gaming the system and not fully reporting wait times? >>. >> senator, i would say that we have zero tolerance for that and we are going to continue our audits and reviews to ensure with additional training of scheduling practices that this is not occurring. this is certainly not a practice that can be condoned. >> well, you heard mr mr. tolentino. he talked about the manchester va increasing their mental health workload numbers in order to get additional resources despi

dr. schohn you may want to comment to this. >> who is in charge? is it her or what? >> for the committee, let me just clarify, these are not related to the number of vacancies, they're related to the number of positions that are needed in our facilities, and so we will be adding 1900 positions, 1600 in clerical and provider support in addition to those that we are currently recruiting for. >> how long do you think it will take to fill these positions? >> it depends on the level of provider that we're searching for. but -- >> give me an idea, is it a week, a month, a year? >> it can take four or five months. >> and how do you determine the number of additional staff and which type of clinicians were actually needed? how do you make that determination? >> okay. we are allocating the fte to the visn for distribution to the facilities, we will be working with the facilities and the visns, part of what we had not described here that is in place now is a robust system in which dr. scohn is working with the mental health leads in the visns. we have greater visibility to vis

dr. mary schohn at the department of veterans affairs. we have dr. david daigh accompanied by dr. michael shepherd, senior physician in the ig's office of health care inspections. also from the office of inspector general, we have ms. linda halliday, audits and evaluations accompanied by dr. larry reinkemeyer, and next we will hear from nick tolentino, officer in the va, and finally we will hear from the executive direct every of outdoor odyssey, major general thomas jones. mr. schoenhard, we will begin with your testimony. we have a lot of answers we need from you so, please, begin. >> thank you. chairman murray, we appreciate the opportunity today to address the access to quality of mental health care services to our nation's veterans. and we appreciate so much discussion of a topic that is integral to the well being and full living out of a fullfilled life of our nation's veterans. mental health is integral to the overall well being and physical health of a veteran. it's important if there's underlying depression, problem drinking or substance abuse or other medical, mental ail