2.2: Data Transparency
Other Information:
From healthcare to building maintenance, VA collects and uses enormous qualities of data to carry out our mission. While we
have not been as open and transparent with data as we could or should be, we are moving in the right direction. We have begun
to take necessary steps to comply with the public reporting requirement for our data while protecting the privacy and security
of personal information. We are committed to improving our existing processes and efficiently providing high-value data to
the public. VA’s current data available for download - In response to the Open Government Directive, we developed a guide
for our employees to use Data.gov to increase awareness of our mission and to help the public understand the data we produce
and its impact on Veterans. As such we are creating and managing data sets, and systematically uploading them to the online
federal data website, Data.gov. We are also responsible for providing the public with information about the data, called metadata,
that makes data more accessible and usable. We are working diligently to ensure that the online data sources open to the public
include VA’s high priority data sets, as well as information and insight into potential applications for the data. Data is
available for download at http://www.data.gov/. Current data sets from VA on Data.gov include: Patient Satisfaction Surveys:
These statistics offer a snapshot of the quality of care provided at VA health care facilities. The report includes information
about waiting times, staffing levels, infection rates, surgical volumes, quality measures, patient satisfaction, service availability
and complexity, accreditation status, and patient safety. The data in this report have been drawn from multiple sources across
VHA. Veterans Benefits and Compensation: This dataset provides a count of the number of Veterans receiving disability compensation
or pension payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The data is reported at the county level, by age group and by
percent disability rating for each state plus recipients in Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico Geographic Distribution
of VA Expenditures: This report shows estimated VA expenditures for major programmatic areas by geographic area (state, county
and congressional district). The major programmatic areas are: Compensation and Pension; Readjustment (Education) and Vocational
Rehabilitation; Insurance; Construction; and Medical and Administrative. High-value data sets and tools High value is defined
as information that can be used to increase agency accountability and responsiveness, improve public knowledge of the agency
and its operations, further the core mission of the agency, create economic opportunity, or respond to need and demand as
identified through public consultation. From our perspective, this definition encompasses almost all of the data that VA owns:
much of the agency’s data will help with accountability, both to the Veterans and communities that VA serves. This in turn
will further the core mission of the agency. One example of high-value information identified with VA is data regarding the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funded projects at VA. ARRA afforded $1.4 billion dollars for projects such
as maintenance of facilities and construction of new facilities. In an attempt to be open and transparent about where the
funds are currently in use, we have created an interactive map that allows visitors to search for Recovery Act funded projects
all over the country. The expectation is that high-value information would help Americans find potential jobs by using the
map. (http://www.va.gov/recoverymap) Prioritization, release, and monitoring high value information and data - While VA is
more open and transparent with its data than ever before, we currently face the challenge of prioritizing and re-publishing
data that is currently available to the public online. For example, each fiscal year (FY) we release the Performance and Accountability
Report (PAR), the report card that measures our progress toward providing Veterans with outstanding services. The entire PAR
is located on the VA website and is available for download by the public in PDF format. Unfortunately, PDF is not an open,
machine-readable format, thereby stifling interaction and study, which is the underlying purpose for having transparency outlined
in our plan. We are committed to republishing these and other reports in open, machine-readable formats. Additionally, we
will require that the metadata for published reports, like the PAR, are available for download in tandem with the final document.
To ensure that these improvements are made across VA, we will develop a plan for data prioritization and release as well as
milestones for implementation. VA’s Web Governance Board is the key entity to ensure this vision becomes a reality. The Board
is made up of representatives from each administration across VA and is tasked with making recommendations concerning the
use of the Internet and the associated websites and services within VA. VA is also integrating the need for data transparency
into the structure of the agency. Our agency responded to the need to prioritize, catalog and release the massive amounts
of data stored within VA. The Assistant Secretary of Policy and Planning, Dr. Raul Perea-Henze, is spearheading the effort
to hone data transparency by creating a group of leaders to serve as Data Points of Contact within VA. These points of contact
represent each administration, staff office and administrative office within the agency. The Data POCs meet monthly to discuss
the state of Data.gov and the data being assembled at all levels in VA. The Data POCs are leaders at VA who work tirelessly
to answer the call for data transparency. They report to the Assistant Secretary of Policy and Planning, who reports to the
Deputy Secretary. To ensure continued improvement in the quality of the data we report to the world, the acting Chief Financial
Officer for the VA, Todd Grams, has developed with his Senior Assessment Team a plan to improve and report all the financial
data to USAspending.gov and Recovery.gov. The Chief Financial Officer is also a member of the Executive Leadership Board.
Indicator(s):
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