The thread of the story is a male veteran that's getting paperwork from the VA about his gynecological problems. But take heed of this:
The Department of Veterans Affairs is notorious for bungling health care benefits, and its Roanoke regional office, which handled McBride's claim, has long been considered among the worst.
In September 2009 a surprise inspection found the office was collapsing under the weight of its own bureaucratic incompetence. Literally.
Its filing system — floor-to-ceiling stacks of overfilled file cabinets and loose claims folders — weighed twice as much as the building's structure allowed, threatening the lives of everyone inside. Inspectors also found missing and improperly filed, stored and processed claims, among other problems. The regional office was ordered to overhaul the health care processing center completely.
This is bureaucracy in action. But somehow the government that can't even handle the health care of our veterans will manage to effectively and efficiently manage EVERYBODY'S health care?
If so, Weird Al is right:
Black is white, up is down, and short is long ....
All you need to understand is -
Everything you know is wrong
When I was in med school, EVERYBODY wanted to rotate at the VA hospitals. They were the cleanest, nicest, best-staffed, least paper-work-burdened of all the available hospitals.
ReplyDeleteIf Obamacare means everyone gets care as good as the care provided by VA hospitals, I'll be very happy.
You're welcome to it. I got lousy care in L&D as a military wife. I'd rather have a cab driver deliver my baby. It was a military hospital that gave a 6-year-old with a split lip a "pain cocktail" instead of a popsickle, then stood around and watched him die of a morphine overdose.
ReplyDeleteIf you want that care, go for it. But don't inflict it on the rest of us.
Yes, I'm sure my grandfather who died due to neglect at a VA hospital would speak very highly of them had they not killed him first.
ReplyDeleteI know my husband's grandfather, who was in renal failure before they made a simple diagnosis, has nothing but the best to say. It really was shocking how quickly he was diagnosed once he moved to a private hospital.
I only wish my grandpa had been given the chance. Maybe he'd still be alive instead of dead because of an overlooked UTI.
How about giving an infant the adult flu shot, and turning his wife away as "over reacting" when he has a temp over 102?
ReplyDeleteOr their inability to get the right glasses for me the entire 6 years I was in?
Sure, it's easy to cite individual errors. The question is HOW MANY of these sort of errors occur in VA hospitals? More, or fewer, than in other hospitals?
ReplyDeleteOf course, I should know better than to expect Christina to provide numbers.
"Its filing system — floor-to-ceiling stacks of overfilled file cabinets and loose claims folders — weighed twice as much as the building's structure allowed, threatening the lives of everyone inside."
ReplyDeleteThis is the bureaucracy you want us to embrace. Like I said, OC, help yourself! You can spend your life ass-deep in indecipherable and contradictory regulations that leave real human beings getting chewed up like so many paper jams in an office copier. But the majority of Americans want no part of it.
NONE of the folks I know who delt with military medical don't have a story to tell, even the folks who didn't have to deal with the mobile ops. Perhaps the lack of paperwork OC remembers is because they didn't use med school students for it? For that matter, I wouldn't be surprised to know a VA hospital designed its schedule around looking good for med school students. Good advertising. (Kind of like how those Navy commercials never show swabbing, grinding and painting. ^.^)
ReplyDeleteI dread the day my husband retires and we face the possibility of getting into the VA medical system rather than the MTFs. TriCare Prime care has its issues but VA is even worse.
ReplyDeleteRE: "You can spend your life ass-deep in indecipherable and contradictory regulations that leave real human beings getting chewed up like so many paper jams in an office copier. But the majority of Americans want no part of it."
ReplyDeleteYou're right, of course. Most americans want totally unregulated medical care. They want people without degrees to be able to call themselves "Dr", and to advertise themselves as doctors. (Sarcasm)
Back to the strawman argument, I see.
ReplyDeletePersonally, OC, I will say that I heartily WISH you the kind of "health care" Obamacare will deliver.
If it's like the health care I saw (and helped provide) in a VA hospital, I'll be very happy with it, thanks.
ReplyDelete