“The Veterans Health Administration has tried to instill a message within its workforce over the course of a few years.”
“Innovation is hard, and success doesn’t always come quickly. It often starts small at one hospital, spreading slowly across the VA enterprise. There are often setbacks. Supervisors may never get on board. Some projects never work out.”
“’It’s sometimes hard to convince leadership and those that may be making the investment that investing in the infrastructure is absolutely foundational and vital to really achieving success,’ Ryan Vega, executive director of VHA’s Innovation Ecosystem, said in a recent interview.”
“Over the past few years, VHA has tried support its employees who, throughout the course of their day-to-day work, saw a problem and found a solution. Through VHA’s Innovation Ecosystem, it’s built an infrastructure to fund, develop and spread viable solutions throughout the VA network.”
“Annual events like VHA’s Innovation Experience help train employees to pitch their ideas and gather support from leadership.”
“Then the pandemic hit.”
“’We were ready,’ Vega said. ‘VA was ready when the pandemic hit to deploy this workforce and deploy this innovative spirit to the pandemic relief…’” Read the full article here.
Source: After years of practice VA says its innovation ecosystem was ready-made for the pandemic – By Nicole Ogrysko, November 3, 2020. Federal News Network.
