A few days before Labor Day, as Americans prepared for the end of summer, we learned that some 300,000 U.S. veterans might have died while waiting for health care at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Yet due to "generally unreliable" VA data and ineffective systems, even this critical statistic could not be confirmed.

These disturbing findings, revealed in a report by the agency's inspector general, confirm the urgency for VA reform. When it comes to veterans care, Americans are rightfully outraged, and can no longer be content with business as usual: We must seek — and our veterans deserve — real improvements that are bold and long-lasting.

During my career as a neurosurgeon, I worked at VA hospitals as a medical student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and again in Baltimore. Both my internship and residency at Johns Hopkins involved actual patient care as well as supervising resident physicians attending at VA hospital facilities. I sat at the bedside of many veterans and witnessed their selflessness, their sacrifice and their need for extraordinary care. Their anguish was my anguish.