VBA Compensation and Pension Medical Exams Resume

In response to increased demand for insightful and timely data from Veterans and other stakeholders, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) developed an interactive map using Tableau software to increase accessibility to stakeholders to identify locations where in-person examinations had resumed. The dashboard allows anyone in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to type in a zip code and determine whether in-person medical examinations have resumed in their geographic area and uses color coding to indicate areas where in-person examinations that require the removal of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are authorized. Considering the value of this information to claimants waiting on examinations and the public, VBA published this solution on its website for easy access by any interested parties. The dashboard has been viewed more than 285,000 times as of January 2021. Data associated with the interactive maps can be accessed on the VA Open Data Datasets Site. To assist with analysis, a crosswalk is included as a separate dataset with information that associates VA facilities with their zip codes, addresses, and their latitude and longitude coordinates (for geo mapping facility locations and associating those with physical addresses).