Fiscal Year 2005 Performance and Accountability Report Published November 15, 2005
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Strategic Objective 4.1: Emergency Preparedness
Improve the Nation's preparedness for response to war, terrorism, national emergencies, and natural disasters by developing plans and taking actions to ensure continued service to veterans as well as support to national, state, and local emergency management and homeland security efforts.
Performance Trends and Impact of FY 2005 Results
Performance Trend |
FY 2005 Impact |
Supporting Measure: Percent of VA Emergency Planners who have completed orientation*
*The 2005 plan number is not available. |
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2005 Result |
100% |
Strategic Target |
100% |
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The 2005 achievement indicates that those in VA responsible for developing continuity of operations plans and guaranteeing VA will continue to provide essential functions understand their responsibilities for emergency preparedness planning and the directives governing such planning. |
Supporting Measure: Percent of VA Leadership who certify their teams "ready to deploy" to their COOP site
*The 2005 plan number is not available. |
| |
2005 Result |
85% |
Strategic Target |
100% |
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The 2005 achievement indicates that the majority of VA's leadership knows the requirements for maintaining continuity of operations (COOP) and service to veterans and that their organizations have plans in place and are ready to relocate to an alternate site if necessary. As demonstrated by Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, continuity of operations is essential to veterans, their families, and the community at large. |
Related Information
Major Management Challenges
The following major management challenges have been identified for this strategic objective:
OIG
GAO
- Prepare for Biological and Chemical Acts of Terrorism (more details)
- Establishing Appropriate and Effective Information-Sharing Mechanisms to Improve Homeland Security: A High-Risk Area (more details)
Program Evaluations
VA completed a Survey Assessment of VA Medical Centers' Emergency Preparedness, which analyzed facility and staff preparedness including issues such as medical center back-up utilities, lab, pharmacy, psychiatric services, security, administration, and internal medicine. Deliverables included an automated Web-based survey assessment tool, which provides for follow-up assessments at regular intervals. The study found that VA's strengths are in the areas of planning, establishing command and control structures, and having a strong surge capability to increase the capacity for beds, personnel, medications, and supplies. Areas needing improvement included coordination and administration, communication, logistics and resource management, and training. Among the recommendations were that VA strive for greater consistency in planning and full redundancy of critical systems at each VAMC. Also, VA should refine the survey, re-administer it to track progress, and compare it with the HHS survey of non-federal hospitals. VA is currently negotiating a contract to refine the online survey tool, develop a comparison document of VA and HHS survey data, and share the survey findings with DoD.
VA conducted a contract staffing analysis to assess the extent to which VA has sufficient personnel with the requisite skills and training who could be assembled to meet external emergency preparedness commitments while still maintaining essential services and operations during a catastrophic emergency. The contractor developed a comprehensive training framework and facility-specific guidelines for preparing occupant emergency plans. The analysis identified potential family support activities during an emergency situation. The contractor also conducted a comparative market analysis of occupant surveillance systems, reviewed the issuance of security clearances, and identified standards for the criteria used to determine the vulnerabilities associated with hiring or employing foreign nationals. VA's Strategic Management Council is considering an action plan outlining the necessary actions, timeline, and resource commitments to implement the recommendations.
VA also conducted an Essential Paper Records Study. The study assessed VA's ability to sufficiently safeguard and reconstitute essential paper records during and after a catastrophic event that disrupts the provision of benefits and services to veterans and their families. It also analyzed the process and procedures for maintaining, protecting, securing, and reconstituting paper records for business operations essential to each VA administration and certain headquarters functions. The study found that the greatest vulnerabilities relate to VA's overflow storage for paper records where the standard of care and protection was frequently found to be extremely low. VA has alerted facilities to the risks posed to these records, and Records Management program officials in Central Office are instituting abatement plans to deal with vulnerabilities.
Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) Evaluation
No PART evaluations have been completed that specifically address this objective.
New Policies and Procedures
The Department has participated in major governmentwide exercises designed to respond to chemical and biological acts and has conducted internal continuity of operations exercises. The Department also established a new comprehensive emergency management program to address continuity of operations, as required by Federal Preparedness Circular 65.
Other Important Results
The National Institute of Building Sciences conducted physical vulnerability assessments to study mission-critical VA facilities and provided recommendations to mitigate identified vulnerabilities. As a follow-up, VA will conduct full assessments at sites where CARES major projects are planned and expand analytical capability of the Physical Security Database to better track progress in addressing identified vulnerabilities.
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