Plan to shrink Veterans Affairs workforce prompts hope, dread in Georgia

There is a lot at stake for Georgia. The state is home to more than 600,000 veterans, dozens of VA health care facilities and numerous military installations, including Fort Benning near Columbus and Fort Stewart near Savannah.

There is also a lot of room for improvement in Georgia, where VA hospitals have struggled to consistently provide good care. The federal agency has also drawn scrutiny for the deaths of patients.

The VA hospitals in Atlanta and Augusta are among the lowest performing in the nation, according to ratings published by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As of Feb. 19, both had overall ratings of two out of five stars, which are based in part on patient care, safety and mortality. Most of the more than 100 other VA hospitals that received ratings during the same time frame got higher scores.

In 2019, two veterans killed themselves outside VA hospitals in Atlanta and Dublin over the same weekend. Five months later, a veteran died after being repeatedly attacked by fire ants at a VA long-term care facility in Atlanta.

John Phillips of Canton, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who works as a civilian aide to U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, said the proposed VA job cuts could help if they reduce the agency’s bureaucracy and improve its accountability.

“Is there fat in the VA that needs to be cut out? Yes. Are there efficiencies that need to be gained inside the organization? Absolutely,” said Phillips, co-founder and vice president of Vetlanta, a club that supports veterans and their families. “Everything ought to be on the table.”

Credit: Bob Andres/AJC

Credit: Bob Andres/AJC

Jim Lindenmayer, who leads the American Legion Post 45’s Cherokee County Homeless Veteran Program, holds similar views. For years, the retired U.S. Army captain has pushed for the VA to improve its leadership, customer service and transparency.

“Maybe it’s time to shake it up,” said Lindenmayer, a West Point graduate who helps fellow veterans file medical claims. “They need to figure out what it is that they do well and say, ‘This is what we are going to focus on and the rest we are going to put to the outside.’”

Union leaders who represent VA employees in Georgia say massively shrinking the workforce could make things worse. They point to an Aug. 7 VA Office of Inspector General report that says 82% of VA facilities had “severe shortages” of nurses last year. They also say the VA’s workload has grown since veterans have filed more than 2 million benefits claims through the PACT Act, a 2022 federal law that expands VA health care for veterans exposed to toxic substances.

Collins underscored this month the reductions would be done without “making cuts to health care or benefits to veterans and VA beneficiaries.”

But in recent weeks the VA has fired workers who helped transport patients within hospitals and others who helped those in crisis find housing and other aid, said officials with National Nurses United and the American Federation of Government Employees.

“What I see on the day to day on my shift is not enough people to respond to patient needs,” said Teshara Felder-Livingston, a registered nurse at the Atlanta VA and a union steward with National Nurses United. “Patients are having to soil themselves because there is no one to come and help them to the bathroom. That is really hurtful to their mental health.”

The Trump administration has also unnerved VA workers by sending them emails telling them to document their five accomplishments each week, said Felder-Livingston, who is also a U.S. Navy veteran. Elon Musk, who is overseeing the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, posted on X last month that failing to respond to those emails would “be taken as a resignation.”

“It has caused so much anxiety,” said Erika Alexander, a licensed social worker who represents fellow VA employees in Georgia as president of the AFGE’s Local 518. Her colleagues, she added, “are stressed out.”

Causing such anxiety can affect productivity, said Amy Edmondson, who teaches management at Harvard Business School.

“It limits problem-solving and the ability to focus,” said Edmondson, author of “The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth.” Teamwork, she added, could also be inhibited “by a real sense of dread about what might happen next.”