Ohio veterans' health centers experiencing severe staffing shortages, watchdog group says

By Samantha Hendrickson, Updated 07:01 AM PDT, Fri August 22, 2025

The Columbus Dispatch

Correction: A headline on a previous version of this story improperly attributed staffing shortages to pending Trump administration cuts.

Veteran health centers in Ohio and across the country are experiencing an increase in severe staffing shortages, according to an independent watchdog report for the Department of Veteran's Affairs.

The 139 Veteran's Health Administration centers surveyed by the VA's Inspector General in the spring reported having trouble filling jobs for doctors, nurses, psychologists and security staff in fiscal year 2025, among other vital positions. It's a 50% increase in reporting of such shortages compared to fiscal year 2024, which jumped from 2,959 to 4,434 across the centers.

Severe staffing shortages aren't meant to relay exact job vacancies but rather refer to jobs that are difficult to fill in VA health centers for myriad reasons, including available candidates for the job or the geography of the VA medical center location.

A spokesperson for the VA pushed back against the report, saying it was "not a reliable indicator of staffing shortages," and said current department-wide vacancies are in line with typical historical averages.

What's going on in Ohio?

Five of Ohio's centers were listed as having severe shortages, including the three largest cities of Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, alongside Chillicothe and Dayton medical centers.

Cleveland topped the list with 40 staffing shortages reported at their medical center, while Columbus, with its smaller ambulatory medical center location, listed 7. Chillicothe reported 33, Cincinnati reported 33 and Dayton reported 26, all of which are medical centers. The report encompassed both clinical and non-clinical positions in the various medical centers.

Medical centers general provide a "wide range of services," such as surgery, mental health, orthopedics, radiology and physical therapy, according to the VA. Most also provide additional specialty services as well.

All Ohio locations reported shortages in jobs for nursing, mental health like psychiatry and psychology, and specialty medical positions, among them urology, cardiology and oncology. The most common non-clinical positions considered in a shortage at Ohio centers were custodial workers, food service workers and police.

Chillicothe, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton deferred to the federal department's spokesperson for comment. The Columbus location did not respond to a call and email seeking comment.

The report comes after the Trump administration announced plans for severe cuts to VA staffing in March, slicing approximately 80,000 of the current 484,000, through what's been touted as the Department of Government Efficiency. That number was reduced to 30,000 cuts to be made by the end of September.

The OIG did not direct the VA to take any specific action on the report, but asked the department "to use these review results to inform staffing initiatives and organizational changes."

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https://www.concernedveteransoh.org/post/ohio-veterans-health-centers-experiencing-severe-staffing-shortages-watchdog-group-says