On this page:

• ↓ Veteran-centered purpose
• ↓ Before you start
• ↓ How to change your status from "Normal" to a different status
• ↓ Operating status options
• ↓ Examples
• ↓ How to return your status to "Normal"

The Veteran-centered purpose

“As a Veteran, family member, or other beneficiary seeking to visit a specific VBA facility, I need to be aware of temporary changes to hours, services, or amenities available there.”

When to use facility status

You want to use the facility status to help visitors to your facility be prepared for a visit to your location or to know when your location may be temporarily closed. For instance, you will want to inform visitors of a weather-related closure, or want to inform visitors of a parking lot closure. You can do this by changing the facility status, and providing a brief, plain text summary of what visitors should know in order to be prepared to visit - or not to visit because you're closed.

Where does the facility status appear?

Your facility status appears on your website, to inform visitors but it is also used as the Veteran-facing truth for many other systems. The status and operating status additional information is pushed into the Lighthouse API when you change it and appears on all sites and programs that use that system. This includes products such as the VA Facility Locator and VA Mobile App.

Before you start

Your Drupal CMS account must have access to VBA facilities.

How to change your status from "Normal" to a different status

1. On your homepage after logging in, click "VBA" under the "Sections" area.
   Result: VBA content listing appears
2. At the top of the VBA content listing page, click "VBA facilities" from the subsection menu.
   Result: VBA facilities page appears
3. On the content search page, in the "Title" field, enter part of the name of the facility you want to edit.
4. Click "Apply."
5. In the results list, find the facility you want to edit and click "Edit."
6. In the edit form, scroll down to "Operating status."
7. Click the "Operating status" menu and select a status. This is generally for temporary facility status updates, such as weather or other emergencies. Go to the "Statuses" section below for when to use each status.
8. Enter a brief summary under "Operating status - more info." You can use up to 300 characters, including spaces. Please do not include URLs as these will not render correctly for Veterans.
9. Scroll down to "Editorial Workflow."
10. Click "Save as" and select "Published" to make it live on VA.gov.
11. Enter a brief "Revision log message" about the change you made.
12. Click "Save."

How to return your status to "Normal"

1. On your homepage after logging in, click "VBA" under the "Sections" area.
   Result: VBA content listing appears
2. At the top of the VBA content listing page, click "VBA facilities" from the subsection menu.
   Result: VBA facilities page appears
3. On the content search page, in the "Title" field, enter part of the name of the facility you want to edit.
4. Click "Apply."
5. In the results list, find the facility you want to edit and click "Edit."
6. In the edit form, scroll down to "Operating status."
7. Click the "Operating status" menu and select "Normal services and hours."
8. Remove any text from "Operating status - more info."
9. Scroll down to "Editorial Workflow."
10. Click "Save as" and select "Published" to make it live on VA.gov.
11. Enter a brief "Revision log message" about the change you made.
12. Click "Save."

Operating status options

About Operating status - more info

This field is limited to 300 plain text characters. We want to ensure that these messages are used for important and timely information about the operating status of a facilty.

• Do not include URLs in this text as they will not be delivered correctly to the Veteran experience
• Be sure to follow Plain Language guidelines and other VA.gov design system requirements

Examples

We will provide examples here soon.