Everything you need to know about new VA Secretary David Shulkin
Shulkin previously served as the undersecretary for health for the VA.
— -- David Shulkin, previously an undersecretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on Monday to lead the agency, which faced criticism during the tenure of President Barack Obama over doctor wait times.
The confirmation was the easiest of Trump's Cabinet appointees thus far, with all 100 senators voting yea.
Shulkin, a doctor, is the first VA secretary not to have served in the military. He is Trump's first Cabinet member who was appointed to a position in the Obama administration.
Here is what you need to know about Shulkin:
Name: David J. Shulkin
Age: 57
His last job: Undersecretary for health for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He was nominated to the position by Obama in March 2015 and confirmed by the Senate in June 2015.
What he used to do: He was the president at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey from 2010 to 2015. During that time, he also served in several chief executive roles in the state, at Goryeb Children's Hospital, the Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute and the Atlantic Health System Accountable Care Organization. Shulkin also served as the president and CEO of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City from 2005 to 2009. He founded a health care information company called DoctorQuality.
Hometown: Born on an Army base in Highland Park, Illinois.
Family: Shulkin is married to Merle Bari, a dermatologist, whom he met while doing his residency at the University of Pittsburgh. They have a daughter, Jennifer, and a son, Daniel.
Education: He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He did his internship at the Yale University School of Medicine.
What you might not know about him: Shulkin is not a veteran, but his family has a history of military service and providing military medical care. Both his grandfathers served in World War I. His father was a psychiatrist who was an Army captain, and his grandfather was the chief pharmacist at the VA in Madison, Wisconsin.
What he has said or written about the VA:
On veteran suicide
In a September 2016 op-ed, Shulkin wrote, "Losing even one veteran to suicide is unacceptable, which is why suicide prevention is a top priority at VA."
On the VA's internal rating system
In December, USA Today made public the VA's internal ratings of each of its 146 medical centers around the country. Before the ratings were released to the public, patients didn't have a way they could easily assess performance. Most of the lowest-rated VA hospitals are in Texas and Tennessee, USA Today found.
In a December interview with USA Today, Shulkin cautioned, "My concern is that veterans are going to see that their hospital is a 'one' in our star system, assume that's bad quality and veterans that need care are not going to get care. And they're going to stay away from hospitals, and that's going to hurt people."
He also called the rating system an "internal improvement tool" and discouraged using the star ratings as a "ranking tool."
"It is essentially a system within VA to see who's improving, who's getting worse, so we can identify both," Shulkin told USA Today.
He also said that since his tenure at the Veterans Health Administration, 120 of the 146 medical centers have made progress and all but one of the VA's one-star medical centers have improved.
On moving veterans' care to the private sector
In response to recommendations that the VA medical centers be shut down and instead have veterans get their care from the private sector, Shulkin told The Daily Press in April, "This would be a terrible mistake, a terrible direction for veterans and for the country, to essentially systematically implement recommendations that would lead to the end of the VA health care system."
He told Philly.com in May 2016 that from his time with the VA, he has come to realize the agency provides "a different model of care, which treats the physical along with the psychological, the social and the economic aspects of health, all of which contribute to the well-being of the patient."
On VA wait times
In his December interview with USA Today, Shulkin touted that the number of veterans waiting over a month for urgent care has decreased from 57,000 to 600 since he took office.
In May 2016 he and the VA proposed giving full practice authority to nurses with advanced training, something doctors pushed back on.
"The purpose of this proposed regulation is to ensure VA has authority to address staffing shortages in the future," Shulkin said in a statement.