Now, VA medical centers are pressured to reduce appointment wait times as backlogs grow. The VA has grown from 54 hospitals in 1930, to now "153 medical centers, with at least one in each state" ("Facts about the"). But yet many veterans have nowhere to go when facilities are packed, they just have wait, for sometimes hours.
Even in San Antonio, there were accusations against the VA hospital. "Dr. Joseph Spann told federal investigators that physicians were regularly asked to alter the 'request date' for medical procedures to hide backlogs for tests" (Robbins). From Phoenix to Albuquerque to Walla Walla, allegations spread that accused hospitals for falsifying records, which would reward administration after the met performances. Things want to be changed by Donald Kettl, Dean at the University Of Maryland School Of Public Policy, but he says, "The VA is so enormous and complex it resists change from within, as well as outside criticism." Former Secretary for Veterans Affairs, Eric Shinseki, resigned after under pressure growing scandal regarding falsification of patient waiting times, but even if he stayed and tried to fix the system, "He's just one man "pushing a very, very large rock up a very steep hill"(qtd. in Wagner).
Not only is the VA dealing with scandals, but with treatment to those in combat. The VA helps veterans with rehabilitation, medications, and treatment, mainly with what is needed. In earlier days when soldiers were at war, they were tended to be killed. Now with all these new inventions soldiers are able to be protected by body armor, it makes death less likely, but it does make loosing legs and arms and head trauma more likely. Body armor is said to be "counterintuitive that making body armor lighter could offer a soldier more protection" (Chang). The body armor can also be known as Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit or TALOS, "it aims to do is to get around physics and makes lighter body armor, but also make it stronger" (Chang).
