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7K views 29 replies 17 participants last post by  Ten Rounder 
#1 · (Edited)
i've been in the VA system for a few years now, other than massive crowds at the hospital i really have no complaints. here in OKC we have several smaller clinics where you see your primary care physician, if you have an appointment and arrive early they'll see you early.

my primary care physician saw something in my blood work that alarmed him, he made the referral to the hospital, which initially was a nightmare experience. ends up i had service connected Hep C, i'm deaf as a stump, and 50 years after the fact i'm 50% disabled due to PTSD, 50 years later and still at 50%, heck i must have been a raving lunatic at release from active duty. LOL in hindsight i was a raving lunatic, but PTSD hadn't been invented yet.

anyway treatment for the Hep C laid me low for almost 2 years, they assigned me a PA who had been deployed to afganistan and iraq. she is great, they gave me almost $300,000 in meds and last check up i still had no active virus in my system. cured, but i think it's back again. i gave the PA who treated me a challenge coin which made her an honorary member of the old farts battalion, says that on the coin, 1st MARDIV emblem with the Reaper on the reverse, but i should have a 3rd MARDIV coin as well, cause when we first arrived in country we were 3rd FMF, about a year and a half later they made us 1st FMF, so yes to any new Corps guys, i was in the Fleet. 2 of em LOL

all those years (after PTSD was named) my family and friends told me to talk to them about it, i declined with the rational of "the mid-east troops are hurt much worse than i ever was and i don't want to take services from them to treat me" .... i finally wised up and owned what i am. i use some time from the doctors, and once a month i get a deposit in my account for "paper" dollars to use however i wish. so my advice to any service member who's been putting it off cause they don't believe they deserve anything, get over it and with the program, it's only paper that folks will trade you real assets for.

the final compelling event was when i asked myself, "self, where were these people when you were getting paid (with combat pay as an E5) the princely sum of $310 a month to get shot at?"

what are your experiences with the VA system? mine have been mostly good to some excellent
 
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#2 ·
It took me years to finally convince the morons that I was not KIA.

It is not the quality of care, it is the bureaucratic nightmare that has been created that is the single evil aspect of the VA, a good 60% of the admin staff should be fired for incompetence and outright negligence.
 
#3 ·
It took me years to finally convince the morons that I was not KIA.

It is not the quality of care, it is the bureaucratic nightmare that has been created that is the single evil aspect of the VA, a good 60% of the admin staff should be fired for incompetence and outright negligence.
It's because being a protected class and/or government job means they aren't going anywhere no matter how unprofessional they are. The attitude of the clerks is what's abhorrent to me. I have zero problems the the professional staff.
 
#7 ·
That's why it sucks. However, I take it as it is; a service that no one owes us. I don't always have bad luck either. I went last Sunday to the ER and was in an out in a little over an hour for a severe poison sumac reaction. I'm not sure if it was due to restructuring or not many patients, but I was impressed.

I also understand how some of the staff develop attitudes. Let's be honest and admit that some of our fellow vets are cantankerous folks. For some reason I don't know, it's usually a Vietnam vet giving them grief.
 
#5 ·
I worked at the Bay Pines VA for a couple of years. What an eye opener.

And I'll state that as a veteran myself, I find the VA Secretary's recent Disney comments to be incredibly tone deaf. Of course, he should have been terminated when he lied about being in Special Forces.
 
#8 ·
i am a VietNam vet, i have 5 awards of the VietNam Service Medal. we got used to being treated like sh!t years ago and expect nothing better from anyone now. your comment offends the living sh!t out of me, but i'll simply walk away as i have many times at the VA
 
#13 · (Edited)
You're choosing to get offended about something not even directed at you. It's a truthful observation by me. I've learned that a grown man should never state "I'm offended". We are discussing how the VA operates after all. It's prudent to look at it from all angles which is exactly what I did. It's not exactly something that is far fetched since there's a whole lot of VN vets at the VA and they are getting older. The stats show here in TX they're pretty much tied with Gulf War vets for being in the system. Like I pointed out already though, their age makes them more likely to be using the services. WW2 and Korean vets don't come close. I don't operate on personal bias.

I don't get upset when someone makes a observation about OIF/OEF vets they encounter. It's their experience so who am I to get mad? If it doesn't apply then I go about my business and respect their experience.
 
#9 ·
It has been my observation that the Docs, PAs and nursing staff are great. It is mostly the desk jockeys who are the problem. They don't seem to give a damn and many of them don't know how to do their job and don't care. They know there is very little chance of ever getting fired. As for restructuring? What a joke. It has gone from mediocre to pathetic in the last 7 years. I know that some hospitals are better than others but the one I use is just sad and being disabled I don't have a lot of choices. I can use medicare and pay the deductibles, which I sometimes do since they can't seem to get me in to the VA in any reasonable amount of time and it is a 2 hour drive to the nearest hospital so sometimes it is just easier to deal with the local doctors.
 
#10 ·
that is my experience as well. before they had the card readers to check in you had to see a clerk who input data into the system, one day the line was 40 people long at a minimum, i finally got to the front and the girl doing the data input had a nub of a thumb and a little finger on her left hand, and a thumb nub on the right. she could type about 1 word a minute, now i know she needs work, but hells bells give her something she can do, not patient check in.

my primary care physician is a hoot, he's chinese and i can barely understand 1 word in 5. he told me once, "in my country, old sick people like you we send home to die" LOL he always asks me if i want a "digital rectal exam", i always answer, "no, do you" . he always answers in the negative and i say, "good, we're on the same page then" then leave
 
#17 ·
time in line

just a few for the VA I started in the system in1998 almost thirty tears after leaving the military just did not want the hassle but in 98 a severe ear infection got my attention the mater was taken care of and my great journey with in the system began now I am 100 + % from a plethora of stuff bullet wounds, a couple TBIs, the human boy does not respond well to sudden stops while hung from a parachute or explosions under a truck you are a passenger in. broken leg ankle and several other items.I am a Vietnam vet and do not see any one in the system as a bring down well maybe the guy I saw in the mental unit in a bunny suit take was a bit strange ( them made me go to this zoo because I mentioned the magic word suicide and how it was non productive but they said go or lose ) I have seen about every form of distrust of the vets, there suppose to be serving and the entire system is filled with personal that nned to be removed from there jobs and never given a federal job again but that's just my opinion
 
#20 ·
My experiences with the VA in central KY area have been excellent. My only negative observations were the administration staff sitting around not doing much. I've run my own company for 20 years now and can't imagine the payroll that is being wasted. They need to clean that up and hire more doctors.
 
#22 ·
I had to fight with the paper pushers for about 11 years to get my rating where it is now (100%). The worse VA hospital I've been to for anything was John Cochran in St Louis. I've gotten excellent care at the outpatient clinic in Mexico, Mo and the Harry S Truman hospital In Columbia, Mo.
 
#24 ·
my annual was yesterday at 11:30. i go to one of the clinics not the hospital. pre exam the nurse asked how i was feeling, told her my back was killing me and was sometimes having trouble walking, she took notes to give to the doctor. he breezed in and out in less than 2 minutes and didn't ask anything about my back. LOL he may have asked but he is chinese and i can't understand him, maybe 1 word in 10. assembly line medicine with most of the nuts and bolts missing
 
#27 ·
I'm still active duty, so haven't had to deal with the VA yet. It is coming for me though. I'll probably be retired by this time next year.

My mom was a VA nurse for many years in the 70's through the 90's. She was dedicated, but what frustrated her was the reduction in health care providers (doctors & nurses) and the great increase in bureaucrats, 'managers' and bloated administration over the years. When she started there was always 1 Doctor, 1 or two Registered Nurses, and 4-5 Licensed Practical Nurses per word. By the time she retired she was the lone RN covering two wards, each with just 3 LPN's and the Doctor was "on-call". During that time period the total number of VA employees went up, but since most of them were administrators the health care provider to patient ratio got much worse!
 
#28 ·
I'm a Cold War vet (Regular Army 1961 to 1964) and all my medical care is provided by private docs and paid through Medicare. I've often wondered about VA hospitals and the services they provide. Question: Do they serve only patients with service-related disabilities, or could a poor homeless vet show up at a VA facility with a serious case of the flu and get admitted for care solely on the basis of being a veteran? - CW
 
#29 ·
Anyone who served is eligible for care these days. You have to go down and fill out the application and do a form that shows income levels and that is how they decide if and how much co pays will be. They cannot file medicare but if you have any private insurance they will file that first. When I did have private insurance my bill from the VA was zero because they would file my insurance and called it good. If you have any disability rating you pay zero for doctors visits for anything relating to that disability. If you are low income then you will likely not have to pay anything anyway except for a copay on medication. Mine costs $8 each for a month supply regardless of what it is.
 
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