It’s What You Do

The Veteran’s Administration can say nothing right now to alleviate its problems.  The only proper PR is for the VA to shrink waiting lists and to provide promised service.  However, to do that, it needs more doctors, nurses and technicians to handle veterans’ needs.  That is assuming these professionals are available.  All this, of course, costs.  It can never be said too often:  PR is what you do and not what you say.  Once you have done, you can take credit for having accomplished something of value to the relationship between the organization and its constituents.  The VA appears hunkered at the moment, and probably that is best.  It is behind by 57,000 appointments.  It needs to make up ground.  What the VA can do is to announce steps it is taking and progress it is making, but before it gets there, it needs to understand the dimensions of the shortfall.  That might not be easy to do given the abuse of the scheduling system.