Petzel for Top Doc at VA

By default, it sure looks like Dr. Robert (Randy) Petzel, director of the Veterans Affairs Department's Midwest Health Care Network, has all but landed the job as VA's new undersecretary for health.

The department had eyed three candidates for the job, Petzel; St. Louis hospital executive William Schoenhard; and Dr. John R. Feussner, chairman of the Medicine Department at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

As I reported on Oct. 2, VA tapped Schoenhard to serve as deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management, and on Oct. 9, Feussner sent VA Secretary Eric Shinseki a letter saying he was no longer interested in the top doc job.

In that letter, a copy of which made it to Whats HQ in Las Vegas, N.M., Feussner asked he not be considered for the job because during the past few years Veterans Health Administration management functions -- such as information technology facilities planning and management and human resources -- have become centralized in the secretary's office.

Feussner told Shinseki he had concerns about this "apparent uncoupling of the authority and responsibility" at VHA and "there seems to be little reason for remaining active in the USH [under secretary of health] selection process."

That leaves Petzel the last man standing. I expect an official announcement of his appointment by this month.