The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is America's largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,243 health care facilities, including 172 medical centers and 1,063 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity, serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year. In addition, VHA has opened outpatient clinics and established telemedicine and other services to accommodate a diverse veteran population and continues to cultivate ongoing medical research and innovation. Facilities specific to VHA fulfill clinical, operational, research laboratory, and administrative functions. Each site is designed to serve a geographical location with specific health care needs. VHA's building inventory has sites of different ages, and often there is a mix of building size and age at each site or campus. At the request of the VHA, this study presents a comprehensive resource planning and staffing methodology guidebook for VHA Facility Management Programs by reviewing the tasks of VHA building facilities staff and recommending actions for the VHA to meet the mission goals of delivering patient care, research, and effective operations.

In January 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened the 2-day Workshop on Resourcing, Workforce Modeling, and Staffing. This workshop is one of several data-gathering sessions to support the committee's iterative study. The overarching goal of the study is to help the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) assess the overall resource needs of its Facilities Management Program and to develop budget and staffing methodologies. Such methodologies can provide better justification for ensuring that local VHA programs are adequately and consistently staffed to accomplish the mission and meet all requirements. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is America's largest integrated health care system, providing care at 1,243 health care facilities, including 172 medical centers and 1,063 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity, serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year. In addition, VHA has opened outpatient clinics and established telemedicine and other services to accommodate a diverse veteran population and continues to cultivate ongoing medical research and innovation. Facilities specific to VHA fulfill clinical, operational, research laboratory, and administrative functions. Each site is designed to serve a geographical location with specific health care needs. VHA's building inventory has sites of different ages, and often there is a mix of building size and age at each site or campus. At the request of the VHA, this study presents a comprehensive resource planning and staffing methodology guidebook for VHA Facility Management Programs by reviewing the tasks of VHA building facilities staff and recommending actions for the VHA to meet the mission goals of delivering patient care, research, and effective operations.

In January 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened the 2-day Workshop on Resourcing, Workforce Modeling, and Staffing. This workshop is one of several data-gathering sessions to support the committee's iterative study. The overarching goal of the study is to help the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) assess the overall resource needs of its Facilities Management Program and to develop budget and staffing methodologies. Such methodologies can provide better justification for ensuring that local VHA programs are adequately and consistently staffed to accomplish the mission and meet all requirements. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

"The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was tasked by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to prepare a comprehensive resource planning and staffing methodology guidebook for VHA Facility Management (Engineering) Programs. The resource and staffing methodology must take into account all significant parameters and variables involved in the VHA Engineering Programs. The methodology should yield customized outputs based on site-specific input data, to enable specification of the optimal budget and staffing levels for each site. Currently, the VHA does not utilize a staffing model for defining its facilities workforce. Each medical center defines its required facilities staffing. This interim report focuses on the types, availability, usage, and limitations of models in the staffing processes"--Publisher's description.

Approximately 4 million U.S. service members took part in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortly after troops started returning from their deployments, some active-duty service members and veterans began experiencing mental health problems. Given the stressors associated with war, it is not surprising that some service members developed such mental health conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorder. Subsequent epidemiologic studies conducted on military and veteran populations that served in the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq provided scientific evidence that those who fought were in fact being diagnosed with mental illnesses and experiencing mental healthâ€"related outcomesâ€"in particular, suicideâ€"at a higher rate than the general population. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality, capacity, and access to mental health care services for veterans who served in the Armed Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. It includes an analysis of not only the quality and capacity of mental health care services within the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also barriers faced by patients in utilizing those services.