Salt Lake City VA apologizes
Christopher Wilson, a veteran who who was being treated at Salt Lake City VA Medical Center took pictures of the examination room which his father sent out in a Tweet;
My son is a Veteran of the United States Army. He went to the #VA in Salt Lake City yesterday. This was the condition of the room he was seen in. Very unprofessional, unsanitary and disrespectful. Please retweet. Maybe @realDonaldTrump will see it. pic.twitter.com/P4CMQeE74t
— Stephen Wilson (@GR8_2B_alive) April 27, 2018
The hospital has apologized, according to Tucson News;
Dr. Karen Gribbin, the chief of staff at the Salt Lake VA, has apologized to Wilson and is investigating why the room was a mess.
“I was taken aback by the condition of the room. The patient, Mr. Wilson, should not have been placed in the room in that condition,” Gribbin said.
Gribbin calls the incident a rare event but intends to review procedures with staff.
“I do not want another veteran to experience this,” she said.
Wilson believes his experience highlights a problem across the VA.
“I’m sure you could ask 1,000 different veterans, and each one of them will have their own story,” he said. “It’s frustrating. I mean, I go to another hospital’s emergency room… [and] it’s such a different experience. They seem to actually care about getting you the care you need.”
These are regional problems – whenever I go to VA facilities, I’ve never seen the place like it is in the photos.
Thanks to Eggs for the link.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Yawn. I will just point out to the NLRB that someone else who didn’t clean a room back in 1971 didn’t get a write up, much less fired. That makes my punishment different and that isn’t legal according to previous NLRB rulings.
See you in 10 years when I get my retirement party…
I always tell the progressive fools that want socialized medicine.
I have had socialized medicine in the US Army.
You get what you get. Sometimes it is excellent. Sometimes it is bad. There is no second opinions or changing doctors.
You either take what they give you or get nothing.
And as a PS I tell them:
Everyone, and I mean everyone, that I know in the US military has gone “outside” the system, at one time or another, and paid for private health care.
Even though they had “free” health care.
And there is no doing that once you nationalize health care.
First knee VA, second one private. Worth every penny. 8
That being said, the clinic where I do routine checkups, etc. gets pretty much universal praise. Like any hospital system, there are highlights and lowlights.
I have a complaint against the VA! About a year ago, VA put out a newsletter stating that veterans should sign up with Humana…my neighbor has humana and likes it and when VA recommended it, I signed up, a year later I ended up ICU with my back for 14days, I told them VA was my primary and humana my secondary, turns out the VA will not pay when we have humana, they made it primary and I got screwed out of 1700.00 dollars overcharge ..over what humana paid! Way to go VA…..you just SCREWED EVERYONE ONE OF US THAT BELIEVED YOU!
2banana, that’s an excellent point. I generally had great experiences with USAF medical, but being a reservist I didn’t have a whole lot of contact.
I do have a couple of medical stories from my time at Ft Leonard Wood, one includes outright medical malpractice. Ironic and sad because the post’s namesake was a MoH recipient doctor and Army Chief of Staff.
Every lib I’ve run into lauds how wonderful Eurosocialized care and the Canadian systems are.
If they’re so wonderful, why are little kids forced by cops to stay in hospitals without treatment to die, and why is it every dinky border town in ME, NH, VT, and NY I see has a clinic/hospital FILLED with cars with Canadian plates?
Food for thought.
Hey now, you’re using facts and we all know how allergic liberals are to that along with logic and common sense!
Military healthcare isn’t socialized medicine.
Sure. And the sun isn’t a nuclear reactor hanging in the sky.
“Adhere to the highest professional standards.” That’s a core value of the VA. “Treat all those I serve and with whom I work with dignity and respect.” That’s another. “Strive for the highest quality….” That’s part of a third. I could offer another. There are only four core values. Maybe the VA should add another. “Rigorously ensure that no pictures of a facility are taken and, if they are, prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.
I’ve been to a few VA hospitals and clinics; never saw anything like this thankfully.
If this room was such an appalling sight to Dr. Gribbon and we presume that she was unaware of it being that way, how does she know that this incident is a rare event? It certainly makes just as much sense to assume it is common as to assume it is rare.
Let me put this in some perspective. Who would have their beloved pet examined in a veterinarian’s room that looked like this shithouse?
All members of congress should immediately have to only use VA facilities for their health and dental care. If it’s good enough for us, it’s good enough for the likes of Bella Pelosi, Tester, Chuckyou Schumer, et al. I figure when Pelosi’s face starts to melt because she can’t get her daily botox treatments the VA system will be reformed so fast the clowns will think they’re in a time warp… Hey, I can dream can’t I?
I’m with you on that one… make the “elite” use the same facilities as the “deplorables” and I’ll guess that they’ll demand “accountability” the first time hey are given less than quality care.
All I’ll say to Dr. Gribbin right now is DEEDS, not words.
This isn’t something new. It went on in the 1970s. You were better off going to your own doctor for something health-related.
Just publicize it wherever you see it, and don’t let them get away with it.
Here’s a nice accompanying story;
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/video/cbs2-news-investigation-flies-in-operating-rooms-force-va-hospital-to-postpone-more-than-80-surgeries/vi-AAwCOdf
I go to the Dallas VA hospital. Through several ER visits, 100 or so scheduled appointments, and being in a dozen or so treatment/ therapy rooms, I have never encountered conditions such as this.
Great people there, too.
That’s great. Unfortunately, the place has its problems as a Googly-goo reveals quickly. The problems include suddenly dead patients, secret wait lists, and other stuff related to health care. I know that all private hospitals have their malpractice issues, but not one has the full faith and credit of the United States behind them when they are successfully sued, as does the VA. ‘Hey, what’s to lose?’
Companies that do face-to-face business with customers have customer retention and profit as motivation for putting on their best face. Their employees earn their pay increases and promotions. On the other, there is the VA, which, like other bureaucracies, is bereft of these things. How many Veterans are going to say, “Fine. I’ll take my healthcare needs elsewhere!” As we’ve said here time and again, the VA’s problems are systemic, entrenched, and cultural. Put anyone at all in the Big Chair and nothing will change. It can’t, until people like whoever left this room a shithole, whoever else saw this room, and whoever escorted any patient into the room are summarily fired. Will it happen? Hell no. Next item.
Air Cav, there is also the Mormon factor in Salt Lake. When I was at Dugway Proving Ground, I made the mistake of trying to get rid of an incompetent GS-11. I quickly learned that members of this Church were untouchable because the civilian leadership were high members of that Church. I will venture to guess the same applies at the SLC VA since it is closer to the Church flagpole than Dugway was.
This is the right answer, no incentives leaves little room for concern about the clients.
Bureaucracy does very little to incentivize employees in the public sector. They never risk going out of business because they can increase profit by taking more taxes.
Shouldn’t that headline read, “Salt Lake City VA Medical Center Caught, Apologizes”?
This would be a perfect opportunity for our VA volunteers to help out. They could help by making sure each room is properly cleaned.
Example: https://youtu.be/xdVvA_F78u0
Since 1958 we have had nothing but good military medical care at MTF’s. With the exception to my audio doctor at North Little Rock VA, anything I had to do with VA sucked. Both of our kids are now retired military and we have never heard any complaints. Please do not lump all government provided health care into the same category. I only use the VA for what the military will not provide and believe me, when you turn 65, the MTF cannot wait to toss you over the side to MEDICARE.
I turned 65 last year and was using Tricare Prime on the Base. I asked my PCM if I could continue to be seen at Lackland AFB and she said “sure.” All I had to do was fill out some forms. I am now on Tricare for Life and continue using a MTF.
Both the VA hospital and VA CBOC that I go to are clean, and the staff are professional and appear to look out after the veterans. I’m happy with the overall service that I get from them.
Bumber sticker I saw recently…the VA giving veterens a second opportunity to die for their country….with that being said I use the VA facility in Buffalo and haven’t had a bad experience yet
Pittsburgh is also excellent.
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I guess nurses in SLC VA clinics don’t bother checking the rooms before they assign a vet to one.
As soon as I set eyes on that sty, and I don’t care if they had just done a cast, it should have been cleared before they assigned a vet to it.
I would have told that nurse “When you get this cleaned up I will wait for the doctor in here. Until then I will wait in the waiting room. You can call me again when it is clean or your find me another room”