This volume contains the collected issue papers the Commission's professional staff prepared for members during the life of this endeavor. The Commission adopted most of these papers; a few we did not. An example of one partially adopted is the issue paper on VA health planning models. Commissioners were uncomfortable with ideas established in the issue paper that over the next twenty years a VA planning system would be able to reduce acute care beds by either 67%, or alternatively by 37%. Nevertheless, the original issue paper is presented to enable those studying the activities of the Commission to gain complete understanding of its deliberations. Unless otherwise indicated, all issue papers were accepted and acted upon by the Commission. We are publishing these papers as a separate volume of the Proceedings so that the background materials are permanently collected and available to the Department and to other interested organizations. It has also been suggested that these materials can assist new VA field personnel in orientation to VA employment, or in better understanding how the VA health system operates. Consultant studies discussed in these papers are available for research as reference works in the Medical and General Library, VA Central Office. Copies of the studies are available on microfiche from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia 22161. |