My first experience with the VA
So, for three months now, I’ve been trying to get leg braces, you know, so I could walk. Calling civilian medical supply stores, I got zero call backs, which is pretty frustrating you know, when you’ve left 20 messages on voice mail and get no call backs. So, I figured, I’d try the VA – the same thing. I’d leave messages at the prosthetic department in Martinsburg’s VA Medical Center because for some stupid reason, no one answers their phones anymore, and apparently they don’t return your call.
So last week after weeks of calling everyday and leaving my number, I found an email address where I could leave a complaint. So I did, explaining that I was calling the prosthetic department everyday and couldn’t get them to even call me back.
So, after sending my email, I got a call from the dentist at Martinsburg saying they had a cancellation that they could get me in. I said “Sure, why not”. I’ve been going to a local dentist and paying out of my pocket for the last several years, so I thought this would be a way to check up on my dentist.
So I went to Martinsburg today and they examined my teeth. While I was there, the hygienist asked how I got the appointment, because she couldn’t find any information on me in the system. I told her someone called and asked me if I wanted to fill the cancellation, and I agreed. It was all a big mystery to everyone how I got a dental appointment with virtually no patient information. Well, I got this email from the email complaint line, just this minute;
They can set you up an appointment but the VA does NOT do braces. Your inquiry has been forwarded to the Chief of Dental.
I guess it was my mistake, even though I said I was trying to get braces from the prosthetic department, I didn’t mention that the braces were for my legs and not my teeth. Sorry, VA, I’m so stupid. Or something. But, I still need braces, so, you know, I can walk.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
I’m now firmly convinced that VA employees only have their jobs because Burger King wasn’t hiring last week.
You can’t make this shit up.
I hope things get better for you. I’m reminded of my experience trying to get into the VA system. 18 months of phone calls to the Minneapolis VA, finally getting an appointment, and then finding out after I made the two hour drive that my appointment was only to make an appointment 12-18months down the road. At least for me it’s only hearing in one ear.
Unfortunately that probably isn’t as special as it sounds.
Honest error on the email, but no excuse for the lack of returning calls….
Somewhere a veteran with crooked teeth is staring at a ups package with leg braces and wondering the hell is going on….
I wish I could say something positive, but I can’t. I’ve watched my ex struggle with the VA system for almost 20 years. It didn’t improve for him until a brain tumor almost killed him. NOW they pay attention when he goes in. He was nothing to them before that.
Just remember, boys and girls, these are the people who in a few short years will be making life-or-death decisions regarding YOU. Whether you served or not. You think Kaiser, Blue Cross, Cigna, et al, sucks? Try getting any help from the VA, which is just a precursor to Obamacare.
Sorry for your ordeal. I hope the rough road smooths out for you. Unfortunately I hear this a lot. 17 months for a call back for something as simple as a test for hearing aids. I hope they take better care of you brother.
At times like this, I wonder which is more incompetent, the VA or the TSA?
No wonder you didn’t get the braces you need, because just like your blog you left out key information and then whine after the fact, go ahead and cry poor to your minions you POS, karma’s a b***h huh
For the record, I thought the story was funny which is why I repeated it.
Gotta love the internet tough guys who wont attach their name to a troll post. Coward.
Man, it’s like the 1970s all over again.
What’s next? Keep trying, JL, keep trying. Maybe someone in the VA will wake out of their coma some day.
@11 Ah, go play in traffic.
Holy shit….. And I’m sure your request had to have been disapproved by a GS-13 or higher. Fucking morons….. Chickinshit Trolls can get some too…..
Dude, just be glad that when you showed up, the dentist didn’t ask you to go ahead and drop your pants… ‘you know, I’m branching out due to Obamacare…’
But seriously, this still doesn’t explain why the CIVILIAN dudes didn’t call you back…
But yeah, this would be very funny if it weren’t so pitiful
Is it true u steal from old people John ?
I read it on Facebook and other sites
Retired us army SFC John Lilyea owner of this ain’t hell
Was caught trying to steal Social security checks from The elderly no charges yet
Gee – “Bill” on this thread, plus “L” and “Anonymous” on the “Ron Mailahn” thread, plus “Anonymous” on two other threads all seem to be posting from the same Comcast Cable IP in the NJ Philly suburb area (this one is just SE of Camden).
A quick search on Google shows that there seems to be a “Ronald L. Mailahn” living in in the same NJ town as the IP address from which those comments all originated.
I’m guessing we got Ronnie-boy himself plus a couple of
Yes, Bill, who has the same IP address as “L”, I’m also a French model – that’s on the internet, too.
Hondo, is that Barrington or Blackwood? I used to live out there. Took the bridge across the river to the NAVREGMEDCEN.
#11, #15, go sit & spin on a rusty, tangled pile of concertina wire!!
Someone, please set a trap for anony-mouse, just to get rid of the rodent pest.
As for the VA, from all tales heard, I think I’d rather have dental surgery without Novocaine. I’m just very, very glad and thankful that I haven’t had to go to them yet for anything.
John, I am so sorry this has happened to you and the many other vets who are so frustrated with the VA System.
I work for the VA in Colorado and our patient satisfaction scores are very high. Unfortunately, other VA Medical Centers don’t have that kind of record.
Many of us in the VA are veterans ourselves (myself included) and consider it an honor to serve our fellow veterans. Not all of course do.
I would send a letter to Gen. Shinseki to document this. Sometimes only going to the top will get results and get people moving. That should never happen.
For what it is worth, again, my apologies that you and others have been treated that way. Disgraceful.
John, Also, every VA Medical Center have patient advocates. I would call and ask to be connected to them to register your complaint and to get some resolution.
Gunny driveway didn’t learn the first time what an IP address is, or how to mask his distinctive, quasi-literate diction.
I feel your frustration, Jonn. I’ve had ongoing issues with the VA up here in Maine, with no satisfactory solution. The medical staff are great. It’s the bureaucracy that’s the problem.
In my case, I need an operation on my right eye. The VA Hospital in Maine only does exams. For surgery, you have to go to Boston. Now, the VA offers a frtee shuttle service to Boston, departing from the Togus VA Hospital every weekday, and returning the same day. There are two stops along the way where you can catch the shuttle, besides at the hospital.
The closest one to me is 16 miles away. I don’t have a car, so I need to take a taxi. Each way it’s a $28 fare. Because the VA offers this FREE shuttle service, they will NOT reimburse the $56 fare for me to meet up with the shuttle. I just can’t afford that out of pocket cost.
I could actually take the Trailways service from my home town for less money, but again, because the VA provides a free shuttle service, I can’t get reimbursed for the bus fare. Go figure.
I was supposed to go to Boston on the 23rd, and had managed to finagle a ride to the P/U point for one leg, so the cost wouldn’t be so much for me, but the VA has now moved my appointment to the 4th of June, which means we have to start all over again. Sigh.
Add to that that I need one appointment for the exam and to schedule the surgery, then another trip (with non-reimbursable expenses) for the surgery itself. Ah well.
My consolation is that the same sort of system is soon coming to all my friends and neighbors, so that they too can share in the cost-savings brought to you by a benevolent dictatorship, er, government.
Yeah, kinda comical except for not answering the phone or returning voice mails. Rat Bastards.
Walter Reed in Bethesda can’t assist with this??
Long story short, I needed compression stockings because my medical providers had taken me off a diuretic in the mistaken belief that it was overkill (with the Lisinopril) for my HBP. I was told Prosthetics couldn’t see me for 2 months. NIH (I was in a clinical trial at the time and NIH and the local cancer center were the prime culprits in taking me off the diuretic, not the VA) got me 4 pairs within two hours the next time I was up there. When I finally showed up for my appointment with Prosthetics, they told me that I could have gotten in the day they were prescribed, but that the Primary Care Provider with the VA didn’t know the codes.
Also getting anyone on the phone at the VA here is a nightmare if you don’t have the inside scoop on their number (I have the ones for Podiatry and Endocrinology). My new PCP (the old moved to San Diego) isn’t listed anywhere.
Jonn–even though this made me wet myself, I have a funny story. When I was about 9 or so, I was getting a physical for school. Dr. DeNicola did the exam and sent me out. I heard him tell my mother I was going to need braces…I thought they were for my legs, (not teeth) because people said my legs moved like spaghetti when I ran…I was mortified until my mother said, “That’s what happens when you’re nosy. Lucky for you, It’s about your teeth, not your legs.”
Hondo-
Mahna mahna…
Screw u guys
@32… I just read that with Eric Cartman’s voice in my head.
Congratulations. You did the opposite of what you intended and provided humor and joy to me in Afghanistan. You may now proceed to continue with horrible spelling and lack of wit.
#32…..Is that the best you can do?
Hey Ronny…you. Bag of steaming dicks. Dig in.
Pam: sadly, if that’s Mailahn it probably is.
Mailahn, do you know what a crap weasel is?
I sure hope so, because you’re a crap weasel big time, you useless, slobbering, self-centered slice of maggot intestines.
So, not only is he slander/libeling John, but he seems to be setting up for an insanity defense with all of his multiple personalities.
He’s like a bad smell that you can’t locate. You can only put out a dish of vinegar to get rid of it, and then you find out when you’re moving that it’s a dead mouse that found its way into a space behind the cat food bin.
I think he’s really obssessed with getting into the SV tournament.
Let’s keep him out of it.
You need to learn how to work the VA system. Talk to DAV their guys are great. Also the Patient Advocates are good.
I remember when I switched from the Kansas City VA to the Leavenworth VA it was like discovering that not all children were beaten. I had staff that actually cared and were attentive to my needs, I could get stuff in a timely manner, I didn’t have to fight homeless people, I don’t have to worry about getting carjacked…
Well, that’s pathetic Jonn, I’m sorry to hear it.
All I hear when I get a hold of them is “Please wait your call is important to us, we will service your benefits in [insert time it takes for a snow ball to thaw on the planet of Hoth]” or “If you would like speedier service try and register with VONAPP” only to go to VONAPP and get 404 errors or the ever fun “This site might be compromised” from my anti-viral software.
The whole VA program has turned into a serious joke in the last few years. I have seriously seen monkeys make love to footballs and eat sandwiches of soup all while writing at a typewriter, better than I have gotten anywhere with the VA.
I am ashamed more and more of my fellow employees and most of all my employer. Jonn, I just messaged you on Facebook contact information for a Patient Advocate in Martinsburg.
Get the DAV to go after the VA on you behalf, Jonn. Ther’re good at it.
Be afraid, be very afraid… this is a job program for the retarded, where they figure out which leg of yours to amputate.
@ 46 – Please, please please come visit me! John is a friend of mine and I would love to explain it to you personally. So, come back with any idiotic comment you want, but grow a set and come on by for a chat.
Again @ 46 If this is Mailahn, you can wear youre scary uniform, maybe you could get a shot in while I’m laughing!
It can’t be Mailahn, I didn’t have to read it three times to decipher it.
Detn8r: I think Anonymous (46) was taking a slap more at the VA and the quality of some of its employees vice Jonn. I could be wrong.
And I’m reasonably certain that comment wasn’t from Mailahn.
Twist, very true! If it is one of his butt buddies, maybe he’ll loan them his soup sandwich outfit. I’m easy to find, I the little guy in the office that shaves his head. I’m always in for a good,,,ah,,,discussion.