I have worked in that VA system that is dominated by the not my problem mentality. This is the government mentality. The goal of any government agency is
- To Generate paper work for yourself and someone else.
- To Deny responsibility
My two most recent run ins with this mentality should frighten everyone in favor of single payer government run health care.
I have a vet in Happy's Hospital. In an attempt to not duplicate evaluations, I have asked for records to be obtained from my regional VA hospital. A regional facility for at least 3 states. A fully staffed (by VA standards), fully functioning, full service hospital. What was the response by the lady at the VA?
She laughed. "Today is Martin Luther King Day. You can call back tomorrow."
Thank you MLK for killing my vets. This is the mentality of denying responsibility. This is the not my problem mentality that hides under the cloak of federal protectionism. Try and fire her? I bet you can't. This type of attitude runs rampant in VA medicine. Is the VA to blame? Yes, by nature of being a government facility. With lazy, pass the buck government employees. It's the government mentality, plain and simple. Will my patient die waiting for records or shall I subject him to radiation and and thousands of dollars of xray tests because some lady is too lazy to do her job on a holiday.
As another example. I had a patient that died a while back. This patient went to a county coroner for autopsy. We have been trying for months to get a report of that death. To help us undertand why the patient died from a seemingly benign process.
The county attorney is obstructing our ability to learn from this case. The secretary at the office tells us she will "get to it when she gets a chance."
As a third example of the government mentality, I mowed lawns for the city for a summer during my undergraduate college years. The old time lazy ass lifers would always rag on me for working too hard, finishing too soon and making them look bad. To this day, I remember looking back at those guys and telling myself I would never become one of them. That lazy attitude that is a function of government run anything.
Folks if you are looking for the government to save you with free health care (or free anything). To be the money collectors and the distributors. If you want to federalize all physicians and hospitals, be prepared for this. This attitude that is pervasive in government. This will be your health care experience. I hope, for your sanity, that you accept the obstructionist model of care as the norm and not the exception. Because you will be sorely disappointed in your ability to generate rational thought with federalized anything.
My VA experience was the same. As a resident, I was frustrated by getting tests done and the time it took for the results to return. I was frustrated by the wait time for speciality clinics, I made it a point to be friendly with residents in the other specialities just so I can sneak a patient in early. Nothing would ever be accomplished on holidays, weekends or after 4pm because they were closing up shop and even if it was an emergency, the tech on call could refuse to come in, it was unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteThere was a nurse who we joked about killing more vets than the war (you can pick your war) has. He was forced to get him ammonia level drawn before coming to work and instead of firing him, they placed him on medical leave and he still draws a salary.
The VA system disgusts me and when I tell people about socialized medicine, I tell them it is very much represented by the VA, what makes them think that model is good for health care as a whole.
You guys must be wrong. I read in a book:
ReplyDeleteBest Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care is Better Than Yours by Phillip Longman.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Care-Anywhere-Health-Better/dp/0977825302
Have you read this book?
Actually, one case where govt. is doing "real good" is New York City Dept. of Health with Mayor Bloomberg (now Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and Commisioner Frieden. Great stuff which I may forward to HH if he wants to write about it.
Worked as a fellow at a VAMC in long island, ny. Same experience - ULTRA LAZY nurses, techs, administrative staff, EVERYONE!!!
ReplyDeleteNobody gave a crap about anyone else, insane paperwork & wasteful efforts at credentialing, logging in & out keys, etc. Was like stepping back in time 30 years.
And on any given day, about 30% of employees were "out sick", except fridays, where it was more like 50%! And don't count on ANYTHING after about 3:30pm.
I've suggested many times before that we would do better by our honorable veterans by giving them the same health insurance packages they give to congress. That way they can go to truly top academic facilities. Then cutting out the VA system altogether should save taxpayers billions, which we can then go and throw at failing banks...
Back during my medicine rotation, we had a patient who was a veteran, but who also had dementia. Thus, not the best historian. So we attempted to call the VA to get his records. The VA where his daughters told us he had been seen in the past 12 months for a variety of procedures, visits, etc. FOR HIS CANCER (which he didn't remember having).
ReplyDeleteWe made calls to VA medical records department who told us that he had never been seen there. Several calls. Eventually I called a friend who was a resident working there at the time who looked him up for me. And voila! My friend spent 10 minutes of his own time telling me about this guy's history.
Why wouldn't the people I talked to look this patient up in the computer? A few simple keystrokes is all it would have taken.
I'll leave you to ponder that one on your own.
People who want government run medicine in this country have NO IDEA what they are asking for.