A Fatal Wait: Veterans Languish And Die On A Va Hospital's Secret List

[Barberian]

(CNN) -- At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/23/health/veterans-dying-health-care-delays/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

And yet their jobs are secure with annual bonuses for a "Job well done".

 

[JarHed]

I'm incensed by this, I can't even express my feelings here. I would say we all share in our disgust for a system that is like this.

I'll respond best by sharing an experience and a thought. I spent most of my life working in residential construction. Everyday I came to work I had to show and prove that I had the know how and desire to do what needed to be done. We were usually on a short timeline and did what we had to do to get the job done. Those that didn't 'cut it' didn't last long or went to the 'crummy' companies that are always out there.

I did see the corporate side of life when I did programming. It was markedly different. It was more about who you knew and were connected to rather than if your work was good. I saw people in jobs that were totally incompetent. It's almost impossible to fire someone in those situations due to law suits and that kind of crap.

When I ran construction crews and sites I'd have to hire and have to fire people. People that didn't do what they said they could or were consistently poor workers were gone. It's what's missing in a place like the VA. You'd have to kill someone before they'd even consider getting rid of you. They'd just move you to another department. When you take personal responsibility out of the job equation, this is what you wind up with.

 

[Barberian]

CNN has had several follow up articles about this. I hadn't updated the thread because they hadn't made any real progress. They were just frustrating and made me even more angry. I have to give CNN credit this time, they didn't just make a fluff piece and move on. They are like bulldogs with a bone this time. My opinion of major "news" outlets has been very, very, very low for years now. Well especially since Ted Turner bought CNN.

Latest follow up article:

Phoenix VA officials put on leave after denial of secret wait list <--- link

 

[Barberian]

Link Removed

Why do the suits act like this is a big surprise or secret? Almost all vets who use the VA (millions) have been shouting from the rooftops about this for decades. Oh ya. politics and vets are disposable. It's better to send BILLIONS to foreign governments who waste it on cronyism, and corruption, to spend billions of illegal immigration healthcare (better than ours), housing and education (once again, better than ours). I'd keep writing but my depression on this whole topic is kind of canceling out my outrage. Time to go take a nap and hopefully not wake up, unfortunately I probably will.

 

[JarHed]

I've been using the VA since I got out in '68, that's 1968 not 1868 for you smart asses. :rolleyes: Ah, my usual joke to cover how I really feel. That system was broken before I got involved 46 years ago. I dealt with them for a few years and then like many threw my hands up in disgust and walked away. Now I'm back quite simply due to economic reasons. Somethings have changed but others are the same. It's a corporate culture. I heard a VA guy say, ' I'm a staff level gov't employee and I do the best job I can'. Not sure what that even means.

So now there's the big investigation which will do what? ............................................... fill in the blank

What I do know is that with the draw down in Afganistan there will be 1000's and 1000's of military personnel looking for help and treatment. That will say more about what the out come of what's going on presently than anything else.

 

[Barberian]

There have been many articles on CNN and elsewhere about the VA scandal. I've wanted to post them all, but don't want to turn this site into my personal vendetta. I have to post this though as it summarises many of the previous articles and exposes more.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/24/us/senator-va-report/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

[Sarg]

Barb,

Don't get all wired up on this. As they said in the report, it's been going on for years. I watched over the years as these things would come to light and everybody would get all fired up and we gotta do something and then...nothing. They move people around, usually with a raise, say they fixed the problem and nothing changes.

Speaking from experience, it'll make you crazy. Mine was realizing the "new" troops were getting treated the way we Nam Vets were and I was gonna yell to the roof tops. Wrote the Secretary, no answer. Wrote the Prez, no answer, oh, but I did wind up on their "list" for my efforts.

So, try to not let it get to you, Barb. It'll make you crazy and computing from there on will be interesting.

Sarg

 

[Friday]

Barb,Don't get all wired up on this. As they said in the report, it's been going on for years.

Yeah...
Grew up a navy-brat, and had it up to my eyeballs with the VA by the time I was 14.

With dependents, at the time anyhow, don't know about now... If you got sick/injured on base you could use Navy medical, and off-base it was the local VA hospital. This one time (at band camp;) the VA hospital had me walk from the ER up 6 flights of stairs to radiology four or five times, because they didn't believe my broken ankle was actually broken. Because I'm walking on it right? Anyhow, they finally go -holy shit- Your ankle's broken! And hand me my X-rays, strap me into a wheelchair... Won't let me walk now, I get up to pee and it was like I threatened to burn the building down, that's when they strap me in... And leave me in a hallway for 3 hours (still need to pee)... Aaaaaaand roll me out to my car. (Remember, I'm 14, and the paperwork he's handing me clearly says that. I "borrowed" my parents car. And dude is letting me drive off in it) Without casting it. But??? I was officiously told,that my discharge paperwork is right here. Fine. So I drive myself out to Coronado, have a beer with some friends there -my dad's out to sea- tell them my story, and one of them calls up their medic who comes out, aligns the bone (you could feel the displaced bone through my skin, but the whole area was numb/had been for days, f*cking VA), and casts the sucker on the spot. He took it off for me, later.

6 MONTHS go by and I get a call from the VA hospital wanting to set an appointment for my cast to come off.

Ummm?

Apparently someone finally sent the paperwork from the ER up to whomever is supposed to cast things, someone just makes up that I was casted, and now it's time to get it off. Or. Um. Like 6 months late, for a procedure you never did in the first place, but whatever. It's the VA. Thats jig time.