The mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs is “to fulfill President Lincoln 's promise "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan" by serving and honoring the men and women who are America 's veterans” (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016). This mission statement was written vaguely enough to be comprehensive of the changing needs of our veterans. A more precise definition may not have benefited the organization as the services we provide encompass a wide array of areas. A more precise definition may also have limited the organization into focusing on a strategy that did not plan for or prepare for our veterans quickly changing healthcare needs. However, Hader (2006) reports that within
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The Department of Veterans Affairs has a few distinct competitive advantages when compared to private sector competitors. The Department of Veterans Affairs has the benefit of providing care primarily to veteran patients within a comprehensive health care system. For instance, VA patients’ records can be seen by any provider at nearly any VA facility. This allows for greater efficiencies in reducing the need to unnecessary complete assessments that are already completed. Double-work, where two providers are completing the same tests and procedures, is a common problem in healthcare. Having an integrated healthcare system as exists at the VA allows for a more holistic patient care approach and better communication between providers. Many of our private sector colleagues may have integrated health records within their own hospital system. However, our local healthcare facilities do not currently have access to each other’s healthcare records system. Therefore, valuable time and energy is often spent with release of information questions and completing diagnostic tasks that were already recently completed at a competing facility. An additional benefit the VA has over private competitors in terms of providing care to our target base of veterans is the federal funding for research into conditions that specifically treat our nations veterans. The VA is able to more easily complete research into improving treatments for our veteran population due to these funding initiatives and the availability of helpful treatment related data through our integrated health record system. The mission statement does align with our competitive advantage as it does focus on our unique demographic, the U.S. military
The Department of Veterans Affairs has a few distinct competitive advantages when compared to private sector competitors. The Department of Veterans Affairs has the benefit of providing care primarily to veteran patients within a comprehensive health care system. For instance, VA patients’ records can be seen by any provider at nearly any VA facility. This allows for greater efficiencies in reducing the need to unnecessary complete assessments that are already completed. Double-work, where two providers are completing the same tests and procedures, is a common problem in healthcare. Having an integrated healthcare system as exists at the VA allows for a more holistic patient care approach and better communication between providers. Many of our private sector colleagues may have integrated health records within their own hospital system. However, our local healthcare facilities do not currently have access to each other’s healthcare records system. Therefore, valuable time and energy is often spent with release of information questions and completing diagnostic tasks that were already recently completed at a competing facility. An additional benefit the VA has over private competitors in terms of providing care to our target base of veterans is the federal funding for research into conditions that specifically treat our nations veterans. The VA is able to more easily complete research into improving treatments for our veteran population due to these funding initiatives and the availability of helpful treatment related data through our integrated health record system. The mission statement does align with our competitive advantage as it does focus on our unique demographic, the U.S. military