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Each hospital has a Patient Advocate.
Get to know that person.
There are also VET centers. Get to know these folks.
Find out where the Veterans Service Organizations are. DAV, American Legion, VFW, Amvets, etc. are and make a visit.
Because some idiot decided to make the Federal bureaucracy run the VA it has serious problems. VA docs can have 5X more patients than their civilian counterparts. That is why dealing with the VA you need these Patient Advocates, VET centers, DAV, American Legion, VFW, Amvets, ...
Because it is all messed up, you are forced to get outside help to push your case through the bureaucracy.
That is exactly why the VA is messed up. That is exactly why it needs desperately to be shut-down. There is no shortage of hospitals in the USA. Every county has a hospital. Every city has a hospital. Many cities have multiple hospitals. America has plenty of hospitals.
Civilian doctors average 390 patients each. They can easily absorb vets.
Funneling veterans to only a few VA hospitals is a huge problem.
Apparently some don't wish to learn. Only complain.
Best of luck. God Bless.
Don't get discouraged! It's nice of you to offer some resources in case those reading the forum do not know about them. However, the topic of the thread was to discuss individual experiences regarding receiving care at the VA, so yes, many of them are going to be negative by nature.
I went back home after getting out and had care through the Charleston SC site. It was like a five star resort! I loved my doctor and she knew who I was and I wouldn't have to wait but a few days to see her if I was sick but not acute. I married my former shipmate and moved back up to Norfolk and experienced the nightmare of Hampton VMAC.
It took 1 year to get a doctor and the neurologist told me that if I took my husbands shoes off when he came home, made him dinner and a drink, and gave him sex that I wouldn't have so many migraines. This was the very first thing he told me and he was NOT joking. I couldn't believe it! The staff at Hampton all cackle and talk about that "***** they wuz hitting last night" and stories about "droppin it for your boo thang" and "****** this ****** that" as you wait in line, waiting on them to finish their personal conversations.
I had a staff member attempt to call security on me after the ER sent me to my primary care provider (they'll bounce you around to different departments). They checked me in after the direct referral and I waited and waited only to find out that five hours later the doctor was never there. When I asked why they had me wait, she said I was being non-compliant and yelled for a security guard. I was so confused and embarrassed. Luckily someone stepped and attempted to rectify the situation given that they totally dropped the ball. That was the worst day at that hospital. I avoided the HVMAC like the plague after that.
I can go on forever about how terrible Hampton was. Never seen such disrespect and staff act as if doing their job was a complete inconvience, no matter how little you utilize the system. Loved the Charleston SC VA though and it's still a good facility.
So happy to hear that as I am considering a move from SW Florida to Savannah but was very hesitant because hubbie has cancer and the VA hospital in St Petersburg FL has been excellent. From Savannah we would utilize the Charleston SC VA.
I would love to actually go back home to NJ but the VA there in East Orange is awful.
For an illness, I can't vouch for a VA Medical Center but in my case ( worn out painful hips) they were great.
X-rays followed by consultation with a GREAT orthopedic doctor who arranged my hip replacement at a new civilian hospital 70 miles away. Right hip was done November of 2014, left hip was done October 2015.
Both turned out great. I can easily put my socks and shoes on with no pain at all.
I am on Medicare and I never received a bill for so much as a penny.
Thank you VA
Thank you VA CHOICE program.
update...........a month ago I had an annual check up at VA Medical Clinic . I mentioned 3 hernias and they set me up for a consultation with a surgeon at the same civilian hospital ( Choice Program)
I went yesterday and he is getting VA approval to do one operation in December and one in March.
I will not be billed one penny !
My husband is 100% P & T. We do wish he could use his eligibility with non-VA medical care. He's had two appointments using the Choice Program, but that program will run out of funds before long...it was never set up to be permanent. Getting good care has always been problematic at the VA facilities in San Antonio. I could write a book! Some good, but it's been way too much bad stuff. Medical care there works best for fairly healthy vets who mostly go in once a year for a physical exam and labs. Not for vets with a long laundry list of serious and complex medical problems like DH has. After his Endoscopy, the paper said he'd get a call from his primary about it. Still waiting...but we did get a paper in the mail finally with the results of what they found. He's shown up for his colonoscopy twice...the first time he ended up in the ER instead and the second time, the one-day prep they ordered didn't get him cleaned out well enough. Like somebody pointed out, the doctors at the VA are simply overwhelmed with the huge volume of patients they are responsible for. Many of them are residents who rotate over from the local teaching hospital, so they're still training.
Medical care there works best for fairly healthy vets who mostly go in once a year for a physical exam and labs. Not for vets with a long laundry list of serious and complex medical problems like DH has. .
It's funny that you say this - according to many on this thread, such healthy vets do not 'deserve' to use the VA. Healthcare through the VA should be a 'privilege' only afforded to those with a Service Connected Disability.
It's funny that you say this - according to many on this thread, such healthy vets do not 'deserve' to use the VA. Healthcare through the VA should be a 'privilege' only afforded to those with a Service Connected Disability.
VA care has been restricted to vets with Service Connected disabilities. How we are coping with our disabilities is not relevant.
Vets would be better served by being allowed to seek medical care at any of the thousands of hospitals already in place, coast-to-coast.
Congress is not going to quadruple the size of the VA to get the doctor to patient ratio down to the civilian medical system' ratio. That will never happen. We have more than enough doctors in this nation. Funneling all disabled vets into a tiny government agency that is far too understaffed is the problem.
The American healthcare system is huge. We can easily absorb disabled vets into the civilian healthcare network without overloading it. We have plenty doctors and they are already located in the town you live in.
VA care has been restricted to vets with Service Connected disabilities. How we are coping with our disabilities is not relevant.
Vets would be better served by being allowed to seek medical care at any of the thousands of hospitals already in place, coast-to-coast.
Congress is not going to quadruple the size of the VA to get the doctor to patient ratio down to the civilian medical system' ratio. That will never happen. We have more than enough doctors in this nation. Funneling all disabled vets into a tiny government agency that is far too understaffed is the problem.
The American healthcare system is huge. We can easily absorb disabled vets into the civilian healthcare network without overloading it. We have plenty doctors and they are already located in the town you live in.
Huge and dysfunctional. Ever heard of Obamacare? My wife owns her own small business and if it weren't for the VA, she would not have access to medical care at all. People who are in the military deserve to reap the benefits of their service. VA medical care is the only care she receives, and she certainly deserves it, as do other veterans. The fact that our government is a bloated wasteful bureaucracy is not her concern. That's something Uncle Sam should have addressed long ago.
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My wife owns her own small business and if it weren't for the VA, she would not have access to medical care at all. People who are in the military deserve to reap the benefits of their service. VA medical care is the only care she receives, and she certainly deserves it, as do other veterans. The fact that our government is a bloated wasteful bureaucracy is not her concern. That's something Uncle Sam should have addressed long ago.
