Article

Obama to Nominate Former P&G Chief McDonald as Next VA Secretary

President Barack Obama plans to nominate former Procter & Gamble CEO and West Point graduate Robert McDonald as the next Veterans Affairs secretary.

President Barack Obama plans to nominate former Procter & Gamble CEO and West Point graduate Robert McDonald as the next Veterans Affairs secretary, as the White House seeks to shore up an agency beset by treatment delays and struggling to deal with an influx of new veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An administration official said Obama would announce McDonald's appointment Monday. If confirmed by the Senate, McDonald would succeed Eric Shinseki, the retired four-star general who resigned last month as the scope of the issues at veterans' hospitals became apparent.

In tapping McDonald, 61, for the post, Obama is signaling his desire to install a VA chief with broad management experience. McDonald also has a military background, graduating near the top of his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and serving as a captain in the Army, primarily in the 82nd Airborne Division.

The VA operates the largest integrated healthcare system in the country, with more than 300,000 fulltime employees and nearly 9 million veterans enrolled for care. But the agency has come under intense scrutiny in recent months amid reports of patients dying while waiting for appointments and of treatment delays in VA facilities nationwide.

Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/1sRgr2q

Source: Modern Healthcare

Related Videos
Parth Rali, MD
Susan Perlman, MD, an expert on Friedreich's ataxia
Susan Perlman, MD, an expert on Friedreich's ataxia
Related Content
AJMC Managed Markets Network Logo
CH LogoCenter for Biosimilars Logo