Bonjour, quelqu'un peut me traduire ce texte s'il vous plait ? Sans traducteur automatique merci ! The nation’s largest hospital system has made only halting progress in hiring new doctors, replacing incompetent supervisors, upgrading outdated computers and rebuilding trust with veterans, nine months after President Obama concluded that a “corrosive culture” had led to systemic problems at hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Now, patients, veterans groups and doctors say delays in receiving care are still common, and they accuse department officials of failing to provide opportunities to see private doctors. Critics, including Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, say far too few senior managers have been held accountable for mismanagement at the hospital in Phoenix and at others around the country.
Mr. Obama on Friday made his first visit to the department’s hospital in Phoenix since reports surfaced that officials there oversaw sham patient waiting lists used to hide long delays in appointments. Several veterans died waiting for care there. Those delays set off a political crisis last summer that led to the ouster of the department’s chief and raised questions about the government’s ability to manage the sprawling bureaucracy
“Very little has changed,” Dr. Sam Foote, an internist who was one of the first whistle-blowers to reveal problems with wait times at the Phoenix hospital, said in an interview on Thursday.
The continued problems at the hospitals underscore the grim reality that overhauling a federal department with almost 300,000 employees scattered across the country is a difficult and tedious process. That truth will almost certainly ensure that Mr. Obama fails to make good on his 2008 campaign promise to fix the “broken bureaucracy of the V.A.” before he leaves office.
But administration officials insist that the situation is getting better, if slowly.
In a highly stage-managed appearance at the Phoenix hospital on Friday, Mr. Obama acknowledged the need for more improvement. But he urged lawmakers and other critics of the system not to let the department’s recent problems keep people from recognizing the good work at the hospitals, including significant progress being made by Robert A. McDonald, the department’s new secretary.
“The fact is that there have been a few bad apples, mistakes that have been made, systems that aren’t designed to get the job done,” he said. “I don’t want that to detract from the outstanding work from a lot of people inside this organization.”
Mr. Obama held a private discussion with the hospital’s managers, elected officials and staff as well as closed visits with some patients. He said that he expected the pace of progress to steadily increase and vowed to hold Mr. McDonald accountable for delivering high-quality care to returning members of the nation’s military and their families.
“We’ve brought in a new team that has been tackling these issues to make sure that wait times for scheduling, access to providers is greatly improved,” the president said in remarks after the closed-door meeting. “But what we know is there is still more work to do.”
Mr. Obama said that the incidents of “cooking the books” at the Phoenix medical center and at other facilities had eroded trust among veterans in the hospital system and in the government. But he praised the efforts of the many tens of thousands of department employees working to make the system better.
“Trust is one of those things that you lose real quick and then it takes some time to build,” Mr. Obama said. “The good news is that there are outstanding folks here at this V.A. and all the V.A.s across the country who are deserving of trust.”
Mr. Obama also announced the creation of a new advisory committee made up of representatives from nonprofit organizations, veterans groups and government officials to make recommendations about improving the veterans department.
Now, patients, veterans groups and doctors say delays in receiving care are still common, and they accuse department officials of failing to provide opportunities to see private doctors. Critics, including Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, say far too few senior managers have been held accountable for mismanagement at the hospital in Phoenix and at others around the country.
Mr. Obama on Friday made his first visit to the department’s hospital in Phoenix since reports surfaced that officials there oversaw sham patient waiting lists used to hide long delays in appointments. Several veterans died waiting for care there. Those delays set off a political crisis last summer that led to the ouster of the department’s chief and raised questions about the government’s ability to manage the sprawling bureaucracy
“Very little has changed,” Dr. Sam Foote, an internist who was one of the first whistle-blowers to reveal problems with wait times at the Phoenix hospital, said in an interview on Thursday.
The continued problems at the hospitals underscore the grim reality that overhauling a federal department with almost 300,000 employees scattered across the country is a difficult and tedious process. That truth will almost certainly ensure that Mr. Obama fails to make good on his 2008 campaign promise to fix the “broken bureaucracy of the V.A.” before he leaves office.
But administration officials insist that the situation is getting better, if slowly.
In a highly stage-managed appearance at the Phoenix hospital on Friday, Mr. Obama acknowledged the need for more improvement. But he urged lawmakers and other critics of the system not to let the department’s recent problems keep people from recognizing the good work at the hospitals, including significant progress being made by Robert A. McDonald, the department’s new secretary.
“The fact is that there have been a few bad apples, mistakes that have been made, systems that aren’t designed to get the job done,” he said. “I don’t want that to detract from the outstanding work from a lot of people inside this organization.”
Mr. Obama held a private discussion with the hospital’s managers, elected officials and staff as well as closed visits with some patients. He said that he expected the pace of progress to steadily increase and vowed to hold Mr. McDonald accountable for delivering high-quality care to returning members of the nation’s military and their families.
“We’ve brought in a new team that has been tackling these issues to make sure that wait times for scheduling, access to providers is greatly improved,” the president said in remarks after the closed-door meeting. “But what we know is there is still more work to do.”
Mr. Obama said that the incidents of “cooking the books” at the Phoenix medical center and at other facilities had eroded trust among veterans in the hospital system and in the government. But he praised the efforts of the many tens of thousands of department employees working to make the system better.
“Trust is one of those things that you lose real quick and then it takes some time to build,” Mr. Obama said. “The good news is that there are outstanding folks here at this V.A. and all the V.A.s across the country who are deserving of trust.”
Mr. Obama also announced the creation of a new advisory committee made up of representatives from nonprofit organizations, veterans groups and government officials to make recommendations about improving the veterans department.
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