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Reports are coming out about reprisals against whistleblowers in the VA Medical System. As many as 37 employees from 19 states made claims about patient care and scheduling issues and faced reprisals for speaking out.
Our Sermo physicians have discussed this at length inside the community, and a flash poll indicates they stand staunchly with physicians and other health care practitioners who are trying to improve patient care for veterans.
A poll this week asked, “in your opinion, which of the following is the biggest impediment to timely access of health care services at our nation’s Veteran’s Administration Medical Centers (VAMC)?
A clear majority, 56 percent of respondents, said bureaucratic red tape was the number one problem for Vets receiving proper care. A distance second was inadequate staffing at 19 percent.
Physicians Corroborate Claims
Our physicians corroborated what many of the whistle blowers reported.
One physician who worked at three VA facilities wrote, “My experience was similar at all 3. There was very poor staffing with lousy attitudes. Nurses would routinely ignore orders, and the lab would throw out blood samples and claim they never got them (we would pull them out of the trash cans), records were falsified when outcomes were poor, etc. If anyone actually wrote any of these common occurrences up they would be called into the head administrators office and berated and threatened until the complaint was withdrawn.”
“If you’ve seen one VA, you’ve seen them all,” wrote on physician who’s worked in four VAs. He continued, “A federally sponsored study about 30 years ago, concluded that veterans would get better care if they were simply treated (vouchers for example) in the private healthcare system … There is absolutely no need for separate a healthcare system run by the government for our veterans. The only reason my patients might go to a VA facility is to get cheaper meds.”
An anesthesiologist who supports the VA system wrote, “The VA has a tremendous staff of dedicated physicians, nurses, and support staff. It’s time we listened to their concerns and observations of patient care, and act on them. The VA is a tremendous national asset. It’s time we treated it like one.”
An ER physicians who currently works at a VA facility wrote it’s the “most dysfunctional work environment, but I focus on providing top notch care. The volume entering the ER when I am alone on a shift is DANGEROUS. No one can properly serve 25 patients waiting to be seen. They need to hire more MDs and offer more clinic appointments for appropriate care. The situation now is more dire than even 10 years ago.”
As an M.D. or D.O. what do you think? Have you had a positive or negative experience with your local VA? What recommendations do you have to improve the system? Join the conversation inside Sermo.
treading lightly here….I’ve been employed by the VA for nearly 6 years. While the services that we provide to our Veterans is not without pitfalls, I firmly believe that it is at an even par or in some cases a HIGHER standard of care than i have seen in private sector hospitals. Is there red-tape? Yes. Are there performace measures and standards? Of course! We use some bleeding edge technologies in EMR, physiological monitoring, medication administration, and safe patient handling, to name a few.
Appointments are made as soon as possible; perhaps not always when the patient wants it, but what industry DOES THAT 100% of the time? I can’t speak to all of the locations out there, but as far as the facility I work for, we strive daily to do our best for our Veterans and their families in terms of managing their health care. It saddens me that the recent narrow-spectrum news converage might scare away some Veterans who were on the fence about seeking care at a VA hospital. For many of our Veterans, especially those with Service Connected injuries and ailments, seeking care in the private sector is beyond reach financially. The VA system offers them an affordable (and sometimes free) place to get the care that they need. setting them loose in the private sector would only serve to overtax an already (and increasingly) overwhelmed system.
-Opinion is my own, and not at all reflective of my employer, my supervisor, or any of my colleagues-