Strengthening Trust in the Veteran Health Care System
The Office of Oversight, Risk and Ethics (ORE) educates and empowers Veterans Health Administration (VHA) leaders and employees to ensure that Veterans are getting the highest quality health care, aligned with regulations and backed by ethics and integrity.
ORE Mission
To strengthen trust and confidence in the Veterans Health Care System by promoting ethics, accountability and Just Culture.
ORE Vision
To be the world's best integrated health care system through continuous improvement, measurement and transparency.
About Us
The Office of Oversight, Risk and Ethics (ORE) strives to achieve continuous improvement in the VHA health care system. ORE integrates the oversight, compliance, and accountability functions of VHA Central Office; proactively identifies system vulnerabilities and manages uncertainty across clinical, administrative, business and financial domains; and serves as VHA's resource for clinical, organizational and research ethics.
ORE's key responsibilities include:
- Conducting oversight activities (investigations, audits, risk assessment and compliance)
- Identifying opportunities and threats across clinical, administrative, business and financial domains
- Demonstrating VHA commitment to address high risk areas identified by Government Accountability Office (GAO)
- Addressing ethical issues in clinical, organizational and research areas
Every day, VA employees must evaluate program objectives, project outcomes and policy situations. They ask questions like: "Is this an issue that is going to become a bigger problem?" "Are we following the applicable laws and protocols? "Are our services available to all Veterans in an ethical and equitable way?" ORE helps employees answer these questions in their day-to-day work and make important decisions benefiting both employees and the Veterans served by the VA.
ORE Videos
VHA's Office of Internal Audit Case Study of the Pain Management Team Audit
A case study highlighting how VHA's Office of Internal Audit helped VA leaders enhance their support of pain management teams in VA medical facilities.
Fraud, Waste and Abuse 1, 2, 3 for Veterans
Learn how to identify and report instances of fraud, waste and abuse.
VHA Enterprise Risk Management
Learn about Enterprise Risk Management at VHA.
ORE Programs and Services
National Center for Ethics in Health Care (NCEHC)
NCEHC serves as the primary VHA resource for addressing the complex ethical issues that arise in health care, including issues relating to clinical ethics, organizational ethics and research ethics.
Office of Integrity and Compliance (OIC)
OIC maintains and promotes VHA's integrity in nonclinical matters. They ensure compliance to laws, policies, directives and support local Integrity and Compliance Officers in dealing with issues and risks that emerge. These staff monitor the OIC Helpline to field issues/allegations from Veterans and employees.
Office of Internal Audit (IA)
IA identifies VHA vulnerabilities and recommends solutions before they become public concerns, serves as a partner toward high reliability and provides expertise in audit standards, clinical care, data analytics and statistics.
Office of Medical Inspector (OMI)
OMI assesses the quality of VA health care through investigations of whistleblower allegations and other sources of concern at VA facilities nationwide.
Office of Research Oversight (ORO)
ORO provides oversight of compliance with VA and other Federal requirements for the protection of human research subjects, laboratory animal welfare, research safety, research laboratory security, research information security and research misconduct. ORO also provides training to facility Research Compliance Officers (RCO) and oversight of RCO auditing programs.
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)
ERM provides a strategically aligned portfolio of organizational opportunities and threats across VHA to help leadership more effectively prioritize and manage uncertainties.
Report Fraud, Waste and Abuse
Fraud, Waste and Abuse has no role in VHA's Culture of Integrity!
