re: Does it bother you when/if you see VA employees being assholes to Vets?

Yeah, my father might as well live at that location.

At least there's a location nearby. A while back when you had to go to New Orleans, there would be times my dad would take an hour to go there only for them to say they messed up a schedule or didn't have the cortisone shots he was supposed to get.

From what my parents tell me from their experiences, the a-hole employees are usually the administrative and clerical staff. The medical staff are usually professional.

eta: in the Hammond clinic my folks say they're all very nice.

Just like the people who work in your workplace, a few may be assholes.

My father-in-law goes to VA, and I have been very impressed by how polite and helpful the staff is at the clinic in Hot Springs and hospital in Shreveport. For the most part, they are at least as nice as the staff at private hospitals.

The staff does catch a lot of shite, because many patients are wacked out as hell from dementia, drugs, PTSD, etc.

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in the Hammond clinic my folks say they're all very nice.

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That's been my experience too

I work for the VA OIG but not in the Healthcare Inspections or Audit & Evaluations groups.

My advice, when you encounter situations like that, is to contact the local Patient Advocate. I know that's an unsatisfying response, but that's the VA's method for resolving this issues.

I use the VA. What I don't understand is why I have to split every pill so they can save 50 cents. I can't imagine these old guys are getting their meds right.

I rotated through the Br, Nola, and Hammond VAs. I agree with Yip. And oftentimes, they'd come to their treatment appt furious because they only got X amount of service connection for a disability instead of more. "Sir (or mam), you will need to take that up with C&P dept." Not me... unfortunately, that's an entirely different type of appt or provider for that. I'm just here to help you.

Once we explained it in detail, they usually understood. It's sad to say this, but most vets (active duty and /or civilians) do not know how the system works and were never educated on it. They have no idea and rarely does anyone explain it to them. That's why we have the problem in this country of having a lot of pissed off veterans.

How do you know if they're showing up timely? You a VA employee? Just curious.


And how do you know what pool they hire from?

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I work for the VA OIG but not in the Healthcare Inspections or Audit & Evaluations groups.

My advice, when you encounter situations like that, is to contact the local Patient Advocate. I know that's an unsatisfying response, but that's the VA's method for resolving this issues.

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Seems useless.

Had a doc that couldn't enter medication correctly. Couldn't enter labs correctly. Wasted my time at the lab. Medication ran out. Then started changing appointments and adding appointments without telling me. I got letters for appointments - after the appointment date and time. Then at an appointment wanted to tell me that a lab may need to be repeated, and to do this other test or whatever. I told him I wasn't doing anything until he figured out how to schedule, mail letters, input labs, and enter medication. Told him I wanted him to annotate my record showing that I was not a no-show for appointments, because I was getting notified of them after the fact, and that I wasn't going to get a ration of shite from the VA for missing appointments because he couldn't figure this stuff out. All I needed was a medication refill at this appointment. He got a case of the arse and ended the appointment. Didn't correct my medical record, didn't refill the medication. Total piece of shite.

How old are you?

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How old are you?

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62 and I'm on testosterone, so don't push me.