McCaskill Announces Expansion of Veterans Secret Shopper Program at Poplar Bluff, West Plains VA

Press Release

Senator visits Pershing VA Medical Center and VA's West Plains Community-Based Outpatient Clinic to hear directly from veterans, announce expansion of Veterans' Customer Satisfaction Program survey

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today heard directly from area veterans and VA administrators and announced the expansion of her veterans' customer satisfaction survey to the southeast Missouri region in visits to John J. Pershing Medical Center and the VA's West Plains Community-Based Outpatient Clinic.

McCaskill, the daughter of a World War II veteran, launched her Veterans' Customer Satisfaction Program (VCSP), a confidential survey, to give Missouri veterans an opportunity to offer direct, confidential feedback on the quality of service they receive at their local VA facility. Nearly 1,000 Missouri veterans participated in this year's surveys, and the program is in its fourth year. The survey is now active in four regions: St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, and Poplar Bluff.

"For me, the best way to find out if veterans are getting quality customer service is to hear from them directly, so I'm proud to announce that we're expanding our customer satisfaction survey to southeast Missouri today," said McCaskill, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We launched these surveys to get a real snapshot of the quality of service Missouri veterans are receiving and give them an opportunity to offer meaningful, confidential feedback to us and to the VA on how those services can be improved--so we can work to ensure they're receiving the high quality of service they deserve."

As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight, McCaskill recently introduced legislation that would mandate the firing of any VA employee found to have retaliated against a whistleblower. Currently, a finding of retaliation against a whistleblower is punishable by a range of actions, including fines and reprimand. McCaskill also introduced legislation with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to take back bonuses paid to employees at the VA who were involved in the manipulation of electronic waitlists.

Click HERE to read highlights of McCaskill's fight for military veterans: http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/veterans.

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