I moved to Las Vegas in 1995. The one VA clinic (now UNLV Dental School on Charleston) had lines every day out the door. Then there was the Cox facility on MLK Jr. Then, work started by Senator/Governor Bryan started to pay off. A shared facility at Nellis AFB helped as an interim until the multi-billion dollar Med Center was completed in N. Las Vegas. There was a lot of "incest" among employees, some criminal moves of funds to benefit staff, (I did a couple of IG complaints on it-disregarded by VA Central Office), difficulty in hiring veterans to fill the many vacancies through incest, incompetency and illegal hiring practices. Working with veteran students as a volunteer, I was able to find them jobs easily in California and Arizona with the VA - jobs that needed filling locally but were told "that job is not a veteran job." Through a couple of directors, and mostly through the work of the various Veteran Organizations, and some really hard-working veterans helping other veterans along with a push from the State of Nevada and elected officials, things improved greatly. Mistakes were made but that is not unusual for government operation. While I lived there, I used the VA probably more than the military for health care.
But things in my new home area of North Georgia (35 miles from the article medical Center below), is a reminder of VA health care in Las Vegas in the early 1990s. There is a completed new clinic fairly close to me without staffing. It is one of 3 VA clinics that are on the books but only 15 of the 18 clinics are up and running. There is a big Veteran population here. I am a military retiree and fortunate to have Medicare and Tricare for Life. Most veterans do not have this option. I had a phone interview with a doctor - no follow-up appointments could be made. I did get my most needed prescriptions refilled. My first appointment is in December, hopefully, that will be this year.
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
VETERANS HEALTH CARE
Atlanta’s VA Medical Center now ranks as one of the worst in the nation after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs latest national assessment of hospital quality, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News have learned.
The Decatur-area hospital's overall quality rating fell from three stars to one — the lowest in the VA's five-star ranking system. This means that Atlanta's VA is among the lowest-scoring 10 percent of the department's 100-plus medical centers nationwide.
Atlanta VA Director Annette P. Walker said in a written statement that the hospital "will continue to be transparent" and communicate the improvements that it makes to the public. She declined a request for an interview.
“Our veterans deserve the best we have to offer,” the statement said. “Admittedly, we have some work to do, however, our team is dedicated to improving and providing the best quality of care.”
The star ranking is based on a quarterly scoring system that evaluates factors such as access to care, customer service, deaths from urgent conditions and avoidable infections. The administration assigns stars based on where the hospital’s scores fall compared to other VA medical centers.
The Atlanta VA’s former three-star rating ranked it in the middle 40 percent of the department’s medical centers.
Troubles at the Atlanta VA persist despite years of reform attempts because department heads are slow to change, said Bob Teets, a U.S. Marine veteran who serves on the Atlanta VA director’s advisory council. These physicians are more concerned with preserving their reputations than alerting top administrators to problems, he said.
“I don’t think the various department heads, the chiefs of the department, are kind of getting it,” Teets said. “They have a tendency not to think of things as urgently needing repair.”
U.S. Marine combat infantry veteran John Paulson, who serves as an officer with the Buckhead post of the American Legion, said he has received good care. But his doctor of eight years left the VA and he still hears complaints about long wait times.
“They have so much bureaucracy that they literally choke the innovativeness and the decisiveness that doctors practice normally, they choke it out of them,” Paulson said.
The ratings drop is only the latest bad news for the hospital, which serves 145,000 of the region’s veterans annually and is one of the fastest-growing in the country.
A Sept. 18 report by the VA's Office of Inspector General found that the Women Veterans Health Program failed to complete mammograms for 42 patients from fall 2014 to summer 2017. A defined process to track them did not exist, facility procedures were inconsistent, and the agency needed more women's health providers, the inspectors found.
A June Inspector General audit found that the hospital has the highest staffing shortages of any VA hospital in the country. The hospital was short 89 positions, including neurologists, pathologists, psychologists, and nurses slots.
Earlier this year, the inspector general found that the facility failed to conduct criminal background checks and drug screening for employees in a timely manner.
A rash of veteran suicides tied to the Atlanta VA prompted calls for reform in 2013. Complaints continued, and Walker was appointed to lead the health system in 2016.
Some added articles -
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I know the political controversy around the VA continues. As a supporter of the VA as not only a VA Health-Care Consumer, it is still the largest medical training operation teamed with Class A Medical Schools around. But I am now thinking that much of the needed improvements today might be better under additional outside medical contractors.
I am sending this email to veterans and retirees I know around the country. Things may not be as bad as you think they are in your area.
Lou
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