Department of Veterans Affairs officials have come up with a novel concept for better serving the heroes who depend on them -make things simpler.

VA Secretary Robert McDonald said the agency will hire a new chief customer service officer, and then “simplify the way it is organized to deliver health care and other services.”

Imagine that.

Among the improvements expected is a streamlining of the number of regional structures and websites – each of which demanded its own user name and password. McDonald says one goal is for veterans to have to remember only one username and password for all agency services.

It seems so obvious, but McDonald actually had to come out with a reminder to?VA?personnel:

“As VA moves forward, we will judge the success of all our efforts against a single metric: the outcomes we provide for veterans,” he said. The VA’s mission is to care for veterans, “so we must become more focused on veterans’needs.”

It is sad the Department of Veterans Affairs had strayed so far from that mission that its new leader felt compelled to restate it.

This week has brought a lot of rhetoric about what we owe those who sacrificed so much for us. McDonald’s goals are a painful reminder we were not doing even that which was already promised.

Best of luck, then, to him and those with so much work to do in order to ensure the VA is the agency our veterans of military service deserve.