I have been a patient at the VA Medical Center in Augusta Georgia for many years now. They saved my life with open heart surgery in 1997, and I have had excellent medical care from them over the years.
For the most part the majority of employees, doctors and nurses do go out of their way to help the veterans, but like all large organizations there are a certain percentage of azzholes. Complaining about them is usually a waste of time and they have a way of making notes in your records to indicate that you are a trouble maker, which in turn sets up future problems with normally decent people who see the "alert" that you are a cause for "concern". Whatever you do do not get on the list where you are required for an "escort" by a VA Policeman while on the premises, they even go in to the doctors office for the exam. Sit with you while you wait in the pharmacy for meds, etc. I have been lucky I have not gone that route yet, but I have seen veterans that have. They never learned to control their tempers or their language.
But what leads me to write this today, is my experience in the past week, I have set semi annual appointments for cardiac follow up and my primary care doctor. For the cardiac appointment I was informed they would no longer see me anymore that my primary care doctor would write my prescriptions from now on, that since I was refusing to allow them to implant the ICD device they want to, that there was no purpose to me seeing a cardiologist any longer, and if I had any type of cardiac emergencies I should just go to Life Support Unit (LSU) a few issues with that I live 70 miles from the Medical Center if I truly had a cardiac emergency I would have the ambulance take me to Lexington Medical Center 5 minutes from my home to get whatever emergency care I need to get stabilized and then let them transfer me to a VA Medical center which is what they recommend anyway. (you will live longer getting emergency care in a real emergency room, LSU is normally full of drunks that fell off their porch or they ate something bad for dinner and now have a tummy ache and don't mind sitting around waiting for a doctor for six hours.
But after years of seeing good cardiac doctors seeing me and doing EKGs and echo tests, at least I felt like I was receiving a comprehensive medical follow up for a person who has had a stroke, 7 heart attacks, a failed triple by pass and 2 failed stents and am now surviving on just my left main artery providing blood flow to my heart and with an ejection fraction less than 30%, since at least October 2002 and congestive heart failure. Now to be dumped seems kind of depressing like thrown into a lifeboat with no oars.
Then yesterday I had my semi annual visit with my primary care doctor which had been pushed up by a phone call the previous day by the clinic calling and asking me if I could come in at 0830 instead of coming in at 1530 hours as the appointment was set for, since my doc had never done this before, naturally I agreed.
He did his normal very thorough exam and then told me about a new pilot program that our clinic was going to start next week, they are restructuring the primary care clinic so that the doctor will have a care manager, and RN and a computer specialist (clerk) and that we would be given a phone number and an e mail address for the Care Manager to be able to get messages to the "team" so instead of me spending 4 hours on hold every month trying to get my percocets refilled I will be able to send them an e mail and then they would arrange the input to the pharmacy to have them UPS me the pills since I am one of about 100 of the patients in that clinic that are on a "permanent prescription" for pain meds with "contracts" on the use and abuse of them. But due to govt regulations they require a voice or secure verification that it is me requesting the refill and not one of my kids that have decided to get my pills refilled.
Forget the common sense fact that I can order all the rest of my prescriptions on the VA website Myhealthevet anytime I feel like it 2 or 3 am any day of the month and they mail them all to me, and it needs a pass word so no one could log on unless they knew the password but for some reason the VA thinks that narcotics could be abused thru this system, personally I think my kids could call the VA and say they are me and ask them to send my percocets for months after I pass away and the VA would never know it. But why apply common sense to a system.
But due to this new system my semi annual appointments now have to be changed from every 6 months to every 9 months now, must be one hell of a good system since now I will have to wait an extra 3 months to see my doctor, but I can e mail the clinic now since they now have a case manager and a clerk.
My psychiatrist at least he was a bright spot on the agenda, he saw how well I am handling these new changes that instead of seeing me every 3 months now he wants to see me in 60 days and doubled my Zoloft he seems to be concerned about my mental health and my depression from the new and improved medical care the VA is implementing.
I have a lot of respect and admiration for my mental health doctor, he is the epitome of what an excellent doctor is. He does care and he and my wife have worked hard for the past 8 years to keep me living, he has insisted on some specialty appointments when the clinics tried to say they didn't have an appointment available in the next 12 months available, yet after he was done with them I had an appointment within 2-3 weeks normally. He does not accept the word NO as the final answer, he has been known to go to the Director of the VAMC to get things straight, he thinks patient care is the primary goal of the VA not making VA employees happy and not doing their jobs.
Needless to say patients love the doctor and most doctors and nurses run the other direction when they see him coming. Myself I think they need more doctors and nurses like Dr P.
He was genuinely shocked and pleased when he got that "atta boy" letter from Secretary Principi that I sent to him about Dr P back in 2003 or was it 2004 and so it came down thru channels so it was endorsed by the VISN manager and the Director of the VAMC. He got a nice plaque from the VA Secretary due to my letter. Most letters the Secretary of the VA get are complaint letters most people will write complaints very few write letters of appreciation for people that do excellent work at the VA, I have probably written 4-5 letters to VA Secretary for excellent doctors since 2000 only one to the VA Secretary for an idiot employee. I am known for walking into the Directors office though when there are problems or going to the patient advocate.
The VA does have ways to make complaints some with more horsepower than others, I prefer not to complain I prefer to find a solution to the problem and why does the system fail to provide the service that is paid for by the taxpayers and is expected, not just to provide a paycheck for someone to sit behind a desk and be rude to people. I have spent nearly 35 years working for the federal government either military or federal agency, bottom line is we work for the taxpayers, without them we would not have a job and no purpose for being there to collect the paycheck, so provide the service like you enjoy it, otherwise go find a position somewhere else.
At the VA the veteran/patient is the purpose the VAMC has it's doors open, it's to help them, not deny them the care they deserve and earned thru military service and either getting physically or mentally harmed by their service.
I like the VA health care system, I have little use for the VARO compensation claims system that has about a one million backlog of current claims, and no end in sight for correcting the issue, many veterans will die without ever having their claims adjudicated and that is just wrong.
The new OIF/OEF priority at the expense of older veterans is wrong, the new care giver program where they compensate spouses of newly disabled veterans for staying home and caring for the veteran is causing heart burn with the older veterans, many of their spouses quit working years ago to care for their spouses, yet they are denied compensation as the new OIF/OEF spouses are now getting, why? a 2 tier system does cause problems, why is one spouse worthy of compensation and another is not, I am sorry former Senator Dole is wrong older vets are not happy new vets are getting more and extra money and older vets are just told to suck it up, the system is wrong that creates a "special class" of veterans.
Not all changes are "good" sometimes they are just "change" and it sucks