With Veterans Day behind us, I'm sure that veterans will go to the back of many people's minds for another year, but I am starting this thread for veterans to respond to their concerns for benefits they presently enjoy along with concerns for the future.

Anyone on this site a veteran who uses the VA for their health care? Have you noticed a decline in services available in the past year or two? How hard is it to get in to see your Dr in between regularly scheduled visits? Have you ever had to use urgent care or the emergency room at your facility and if so where and how satisfied are you with the care you received?

Have you noticed the VA being tardy in their billing practices; sometimes up to a year before submitting their claims and then when the bill shows up for the first time as over 90 days having your disability check garnished through no fault of your own?

Have you ever written your congressman and did you receive a response and more importantly a remedy to your problem?

Are you aware of all the benefits available to you due to when and where you served, and has your local facility taken the time to let you know about these benefits?

diables,

I'm not a vet, but I take care of my step-father, who is a WW2 vet. When he comes home from dialysis today (and takes a nap) I'll let him use my name to post his thoughts on the VA of Pittsburgh. They are not pleasant.

OR, he just might decide to make his own name - that's up to him.

Haven't used VA medical services in years, I did use the VA loan for the house I just bought in July, went very smooth

My last day on active duty was 11 Nov 08 oddly enough. i really havent looked into too many veteran things. although i did apply for health care since i am in between jobs. i sent in the information i thought they needed and never heard anything back. when i called someone about it they said they would get back to me and never did. i was definitely lost trying to figure out even what number to call and what information to send them. it seemed like i really had to dig for information with them. kinda discouraged me from even trying again.

After my release from Walter Reed in 1970 two years later I returned to the VA for additional treatment I never when back to the VA. I was treated poorly and the medical condition of the VA was below standard for any type of treatment. I took my medical condition to the private sector and paid for it out of pocket.
About 10 years ago I was required to go for evaluation (like some new body part can grow back). The treatment and care was not bad and the support and evaluation of another condition was handled quickly and professionally. Three years ago another situation came up and I when back to the VA again the serves and support was very good.
I’m 70% disabled and have used the VA in the passed two years. There have been a few situations where the serves of the records and prescription have been a problem. However if you keep up with your care and work with the personal things do work out. If I call I can get an appointment within a week or two. I have never required emergency treatment so I can answer anything about that.

I carry private insurance also. If I feel the VA can handle the situation I let them do it. If the situation IMO requies a private sector for medical treatment I use my insurance.

I have never used the VA for healthcare, I have heard too many horror stories and don't trust it over the private sector. The only thing I ever used the VA for was receiving my GI Bill benefits while I was in school. I actually never had a problem with it. It is a lot of paperwork (which anyone who has served understands how many trees are killed in the name of the US military) and I was very meticulous in the process of filling out paperwork and following through to make sure it was taken care of.

I have doctored at both the Chillicothe and Huntington, WV facilities the past 8 years and it "seems" like there is a tremendous increase in the number of veterans needing healthcare with a corresponding shortage of medical staff for whatever reason. My team in Chillicothe sees a turnover in family physicians at least once a year and I have yet to see the same Dr on my team three times in a row before they leave.

I dont know if this is because of the money, workload, or any combination, but it sure does make it hard to build any kind of relationship with a Dr familiar with my particular case. In looking at my prescription bottles it is amazing how many different physicians have prescribed them and a wonder that there hasnt been any interaction thus far with so many doing the prescribing.

It may just be me, but I sense a frustration on the part of the medical staff sometimes at the incredible demand with so little time in any given day.

Here is my stepfather's (a ww2 vet) thoughts on the VA in Pittsburgh:

My negative thoughts about the VA include the mounds of red tape required before treatment can begin, the constant cancellation of a veteran patient's appointments, the requirement to
have external health insurance, and many times the quality of care since many of the medical staff are either inexperienced or are interns. These are prevalent among the veterans that I have been in contact with, both in the VA facilities on L.I.N.Y. and at Pittsburgh, P.A.

His main angst with it is the beauracracy of it all, not so much the doctors as their hands were tied in many ways.

CenterBHSfan: Your dad is exactly right, and something that should be a strength at the VA gets all SNAFU'd in the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. Everything in the VA system is tied into a central computer and you should be able to go to any VA anywhere and any Dr should be able to see your medical history including diagnoses, medications, appointments, etc.

In theory this should avoid medication interaction and provide a clearer picture no matter what Dr is seeing you for what.

I had an ultrasound done this past June that revealed my gall bladder needed to come out and raised questions about my liver. After successful gall bladder surgery (with complication requiring two additional hospitalizations) I was referred to a nephrologist (kidney specialist) in the private sector. This Dr asked for another ultrasound and then my family Dr asked for one on my abdomen in spite of recently having had one and they were trying to schedule them on different days even though I explained several times that I live over an hour and a half away.

I have been calling them for over a week before I finally got resolution from a nurse whose English was so bad she got mad at me because I kept asking her to repeat things I couldnt understand.

Growing old is definitely not for sissies!

diabls,

Unfortunately, I think that this kind of bureaucratic stalemate that people see so often in the VA is just going to carry over to into this new-whatever-they-end-up-with bill that is now going through the senate. We already see it happening with SS/medicaid/mediare.
I think for everybody who has had good experiences with the VA, you'll find just as many people that essentially want nothing to do with it anymore.
Here is why my stepfather no longer attends to the VA.

After many years of being insulin dependent from diabetes, he started getting bloated and going to the bathroom less and less. They just told him to cut the salt, changed his insulin and to drink less.
Well, he kept getting even more bloated. Finally, we got him to see a local dr. here who then sent him to a specialist. His kidneys were shot and his body was in such bad shape that they hospitalized him for a while to get everything under control and to get him started on dialysis - with a femural catherter. Well with his age and other problematic things going on, they didn't want to leave it there. So they ended up trying to put the d-cath in his arm in 2 different locations and finally ended up having to put one on his neck/shoulder area. He's been on dialysis ever since (18mo.), 3x's a week. He doesn't go to the bathroom at all now.
But before that, the VA was doing nothing to really to find the actual problem. He rarely saw the same dr. twice, he was constantly giving them the same information over and over again and this was after they sent his records down from N.Y. They never could keep track of his information from the other VA much less from visit to visit.
So, we got him away from the VA and he now has his own private dr.'s who know him by name and can take the time to find out what's going on with him. The nurses/office managers only need to see his ins. cards upon his visits, not everything else.
The efficiency and care he gets now is astounding compared to what he was getting with the VA and I thank God that we took him away from that in time.
Now, if we can only get something done with his hearing.....LOL!
(God bless him, he's 83!)

Once again you hit the nail on the head. It isnt the Drs per se that are the problem. Rather it is the constant having to replace staff and never getting to build a relationship and familiarity with the same Dr over time. I too am tired of explaining the same things over and over only to get shuffled around to someone else and having to start over. It hasnt always been this way.

Well, just wait till 30 million Americans have to go through the shuffle when they get what they ask for. It won't be pretty!

The VA hospital in Dayton didn't take care of my father.They would never bath him and they put him in the room farthest from the station when a room right beside it was empty. He died because they wouldn't check on him.

I will stop right there

noreply,

Allow me to tell you that I'm sorry about your father. Although your fathers case is markedly different than my stepfathers case, it could have ended up similar. But, thankfully we never had to go through what you went through.
There is nothing else I can say to you...

In August I was in the Huntington, WV VA three times for a combined 13 days; once for surgery and twice for complications; ie infection/pneumonia.

I encountered swelling in my lower extremities so debilitating that I cant even describe it on here and I had to have assistance everytime I used the toilet. It got to where I couldnt get anyone to answer my light and on one occasion I soiled myself because I couldnt wait any longer. There is NO excuse for that!

I cant speak for the Drs and nurses, but it seemed like most of the orderlies were veterans themselves and I found them to be most helpful, understanding, and sympathetic.

The Huntington, WV VA is a teaching hospital tied in to the Marshall University medical school which is located on the same campus.