The veteran sits in his home on hold yet again with the veteran’s administration healthcare facility that is two hours from his home. It is not his closest facility, but it is the only one he can get an appointment at, and now that appointment needs to be changed. He has been on hold for over an hour when he screams in frustration that he was now disconnected and will have to begin his wait anew.
That veteran is yours truly, and I was trying to make intake appointments for my wife and me at the Mountain Home VA Hospital in Johnson City, TN. We are both disabled veterans and have been part of the VA healthcare system for years; but since we moved from California to Tennessee, we had to start all over and reapply for our benefits. They could not simply transfer us in the computer; and to make matters worse, we were told we cannot have appointments at the local clinic and will have to drive over two hours to see a doctor.
Our story of frustration is felt time and again on a daily basis across the country by disabled veterans who are treated poorly by the very system built to help them. Operators and phone personnel are rude, offices do not talk with one another, or computer systems are incompatible and make communications difficult or impossible. Veterans who have been in the VA system for years are subjected to re-testing just to maintain the medication that has helped them in the past. Veterans entering the system are subject to the same re-testing despite providing complete medical records to the VA time and again.
In a tearful plea for help, Vietnam veteran Carl Harmon of Linn Valley, KS writes, “So here I sit in the middle of the night after two months without pain meds.”
Harmon tells a tale of his wife losing her job due to layoffs and this forcing him to turn to the VA for his long term care for several chronic conditions. According to the letter written by Harmon, he provided VA care providers with several copies of his medical records. Despite this, the VA insisted he take tests he has already had that were documented in his medical records; until the tests can be scheduled, administered, and scored, Harmon will have to survive without his pain and anti-depression medication.
Unlike a private practice doctor who is held accountable by the courts for malpractice, it appears no such accountability exists for the VA. Attempts to hold the VA accountable by several patients have ended only in frustration, according to various websites dealing with VA complaints.
Several attempts to contact the VA regarding this issue of lower-than-standard care for America’s veterans went unanswered at the time of publication.
Photo credit: terrellaftermath
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I am sorry to hear about my “Brother’s” difficulty in receiving care from the VA, but I do not believe it is Indemic of the entire system, and I say this based upon my own experience with the very same VA. About three years ago, I became disabled, from a lifetime of work in construction, as well as an injury incurred while serving my country. I injured my back while returning from leave over Christmas holliday January 06, 1968, on my way back to Ft. Dix for transport to Okinawa. I also had an injury to my right knee, which I incurred playing football in High School, and retricted my PT training after I had completed basic. I worked in the home improvement field for two years, and then started my own business. The reason for doing so, was not because the injuries were totally debilitating, but rather because, with my own business I could work my own hours, and when the pain got to a certain point, I could leave the job, not able to do that working a regular schedule with someone else. When I came home from the service in 1970, I went to the local VA hospital to try and get treatment and care for my back, but with the limited technology of the time, my injury was misdiagnosed as “Spina Bifida” by the attending physician. Only had x-rays, then. I was informed that “Spina Bifida” was a curviture of the spine, and as a birth defect, I was not entitled to any benefits, except some basic therapy, and like my brother, I had to travel an hour and half to get to the facility. I had gotten somewhat use to the pain, and learned to deal with it better over time, unless I made the mistake of trying to do something I should not have done, like lifting an unusually heavy load, or making an obtuse sudden movement, thereby aggrevating the condition. But about four years ago, I had an encounter with a 40′ extensioin ladder, that I had set up to reach the roof of a house I was working on, a gust of wind came along and pused the ladder over, I tried to catch it, but missed, and the ladder hit hard on my left shoulder, I continued to work, but the shoulder got worse and finnally when it got to the point I could not reach over my head and hold a nail with my left hand to drive it with a hammer, I had to seek treatment. Fortunately, the new clinic system had just been established, and I made application for my guaranteed medical benefits from my service. I went to the clinic, in my home town, and got examined by a Doctor, female, who sheduled me for MRI’s to my knee, my shoulder, and my back. It was determined that I had torn the rotator cuff in my left shoulder, when the ladder fell, and that was the cause of my difficulty, I was then scheduled for surgery to repair it, at another facility in Pittsburgh, that was October 13, 2010, the surgery was performed and I was assigned to therapy. The shoulder is not 100%, but it is a lot better, I have also had surgery on my right knee, to make repairs, and clean up debris that had collected, and to smoth out some of the edges, I am still disabled, but I am getting better every day, and at 63 hope to be able to go back to work, at least in a reduced capacity. So I am thankful for the VA, and what it has done for me, I would never have been able to get the things done that I have needed had it not been for them. In my own business, being sporadic, I could not afford a health insurance plan, and without the VA I would still be suffering. So please, I know that there are instances of problems, and those even occur in the private sector, but do not cast a shadow of doom and gloom on the entire Veterans Administration. They have a lot of people to deal with, and a limited amount of resources, and now with a President who has little interest in Veterans, and their needs, things may get a lot worse before they get better. Have faith My Brother that the system cares for and about you, but that like in any other aspect of life, there are those, who do not function as well as we would like. Again, I say, I have greatful to have the VA to call upon for my needs, if I didn’t, I would have absolutely no way, of getting the care I have received.
Mike B. Martisko, U.S. Army August 07, 1967 thru July 30, 1970
Try Hawaii sometime. My husband and I were on vacation there and he had an asthma attack. I took him to the Tripler Army Hospital. The natives there were so rude to him, probably because he’s a haole (white man).
Told him he had to fill out about 30 forms before they can see him. Wasn’t it the white man that fought at Pearl Harbor? Well they can stick that paradise, aloha friendly where the sun don’t shine. We will never go back there again and I hope we’ll never help them in another war…let them fight their own battles.
This government seems to find money to give to illegals, buy votes and squander it on cronyism but cannot seem to find funds and expertise to make good on the debt they owe the vets who gave their time for this nation…. time to reorganize and repair this government and put the civil back into public service.
Have heard promise after promise that the VA would get better, 30 years later only worse…have tried to get help for my hearing that was knock out from firing those big ole howizers, did not allow ear proctection in the sixties….no luck.
As I said in my previous post, I have had no problems with getting ear nose and throat care at the VA hospital in Asheville, NC. I took a series of hearing tests and were provided with a set of hearing aids. While they were doing an MRI, they found a tumor on one of the nerves that deal with balance. I was given an appointment with the VA Medical Center located across from Duke University Hospital. I would recommend the VA Hospital in Asheville, NC for any vet looking for primary care. They are superior.
VA healthcare is superior to anything I was provided by employee-provided insurance.
I have been very fortunate to having aligned myself with the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville, NC. If I have to reschedule an appointment (which is rare), I have no problem in getting that done. If I need to order a refill of my meds, I can do that online. If my prescription needs renewed, I just post a message to my primary care doctor and within hours I have a message from him stating that they had been renewed. No longer to I have to deal with Pharmacy.
I do not know of the problems at other VA Medical Centers but if they would look at Charles George in Asheville, NC, they would find a model facility to emulate. Vets come from W.VA, Virginia, SC, Georgia and Tennessee to the VA in Asheville. I know, I have met them and they swear by the one in Asheville, NC