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When the Department of Veterans Affairs released the annual ratings of its hospitals this fall, the facility in Atlanta dropped to the bottom, while the one in West Haven, Conn., shot to the top. It was something of a mystery as to why. The Atlanta hospital was downgraded to one star from three on the agency’s five-star scale, even though there had been only a “trivial change” in its quality data from the year before, according to the department. The Connecticut hospital climbed to five stars from three, even though numerous operations had to be performed elsewhere or canceled at the last minute because of problems with sterilization of surgical tools, according to an internal assessment and other accounts cited by Senator Richard Blumenthal in a letter to the agency. (Philipps, 11/1)

When senators asked Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie in September about the three Trump supporters who’ve been quietly shaping the agency’s agenda from the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, he minimized his interactions with the trio, saying they’d had a single meeting on a seemingly dry subject: electronic medical records. As unexciting as that might seem, it is a subject that will shape the agency for decades to come. The VA gave a software company a $10 billion no-bid contract to replace the agency’s records system. The new system is supposed to synchronize with data from other providers, as the VA increasingly sends veterans to private doctors instead of treating them in-house. While Wilkie’s comments to the Senate made it sound like the so-called Mar-a-Lago Crowd — a doctor, a lawyer and an entertainment executive with no U.S. military or government backgrounds — opposed the records transition, they actually championed it, highlighting the issue to the incoming Trump White House and making it their top focus, four former officials said. (Arnsdorf, 11/1)

The Department of Veterans Affairs is pushing forward with invasive and ultimately fatal experiments on dogs as part of the VA's medical research program, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY. The controversial procedures previously sparked outrage and opposition from some veterans’ advocates and prompted strict restrictions from Congress. The VA says the studies could produce discoveries that may help veterans suffering from spinal cord or breathing problems. (Slack, 11/1)