Hospital Exec Tapped for VA Health Job?

Well-informed folks have told me that William Schoenhard, who until this August served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of St. Louis-based SSN Health Care has the inside track as the new head of the Veterans Health Administration.

Schoenhard is not a doctor, but he has extensive experience as an administrator for a large hospital system, and I'm told that VHA, which operates 153 hospital and 1,140 outpatient clinics, needs a capable administrator much more than it needs another doctor.

I'm told that Schoenhard will not get the official nod from the White House until a 90 day vetting process is completed.

That process seems to wash out almost as many potential recruits as the only institution of higher learning I ever graduated from, the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego.