VA leader: Access to care, workforce among our shared challenges 

More than 1,000 executive leaders from the nation’s top hospitals and health systems convened at the 2023 AHA Annual Membership Meeting, April 23-25 in Washington, D.C.

The Veterans Affairs health care system shares many challenges with its non-federal counterparts, and workforce recruitment and access to care are at the top of that list, VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, M.D., told AHA annual meeting attendees during a conversation with AHA Chair-elect Joanne Conroy, M.D., president and CEO of Dartmouth Health. 
  
“That's what I wake up and go to bed thinking about every night, knowing that we've got a huge upcoming surge in demand,” Elnahal said. “And that the VA in the past has been called out, I think appropriately, for access to care issues. The question becomes: do we have the capacity to actually deliver on the promise that we're making to veterans?” 
  
Elnahal said VA is making an effort to make its health system an attractive place to work by providing incentives for new hires, including bonus payments and student loan repayment. 

For more on the 2023 AHA Annual Meeting, read AHA's coverage.