SAG to help VA Become More Data-Driven

by Everett A. Chasen, Associate

When Eric K. Shinseki became Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2009, he brought President Obama’s vision to transform VA into a 21^st century organization with him.  The Secretary established sixteen ‘transformational initiatives,” designed to create a Department that is people-centric, forward thinking, and results-oriented.  One of those initiatives is to “use evidence and data in decision making on a more regular basis.”  At the request of VA Under Secretary for Health Randy Petzel, Sinclair Associate Albert (Al) Washko is helping to realize this initiative throughout the Veterans Health Administration.

Washko, who was the Director of the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System from 2003 until his retirement last March, has a long track record of successfully using data to improve performance at the health care facilities both within and outside of government and VHA region he has managed.  Among those facilities were VA’s Northeast Region, which he directed from 1985 to 1989; VA’s Albany Medical Center, which he also directed; and the New England Deaconess hospital in Boston, where he was both the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer.  At Nebraska, Al and his staff developed a field analytics model designed to increase the use of data at every level throughout the facility.

Among the staff’s initiatives was creating a series of five University-based courses to improve the analytic capabilities of higher-level staff.  More than 150 VA employees throughout the nation have already signed up for one or more of these courses, which are Internet-based and ten weeks in duration.  Front-line staff was also trained in data analysis by being paired with a higher-level advisor who provided advice, support and guidance on the subject on a regular basis. 

As CEO of the health care system, Washko met regularly with each of the system’s many management teams.  At those meetings, he made it clear that good data was an essential component of the facility’s decision-making processes, and that data was regularly reported from teams (which included employees from all segments of the medical center) to senior managers. Now, as a Sinclair Associate, Al will work with senior managers at other VA hospitals to institute evidence-based decision-making at their facilities, based on the Nebraska model.

VA has just awarded a contract to SAG to provide coaching and leadership support to help make other VHA facilities more data-driven.  Under the terms of the contract, Al will help senior managers at twelve VA facilities throughout the nation to implement the Omaha model for approximately one year.  If this proves successful, VA and SAG hope to roll out the project to the entire nation.

Washko will make a presentation on this project at VHA’s next Senior Management Conference in August, and will work with VHA to select the “early adopter” pilot sites following that discussion. “Because this project is attached to the Secretary’s Transformation Initiatives, it already has a lot of visibility and enjoys a lot of support,” he says.  “I think we’re filling an important need for the organization.”