While salary is a problem, the department's personnel management also is to blame, The Washington Post notes, citing a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the Veterans Health Administration.
"VHA hires more than 2,800 mission-critical physicians annually," Debra Draper, GAO's director of health care, told a House Veterans' Affairs subcommittee hearing in June. "Yet, physicians have consistently been identified by VHA as a critical staffing priority due to recruitment and retention concerns."