I am a combat-wounded Veteran, 60% disabled.
I have a bad knee.
When I could afford health insurance, I was treated by the Mayo Clinic, the world's best!
Now that I have to find care where I can, I tried the VA. Four times I saw doctors at two different VA's. Four times they misdiagnosed and mis-treated the knee.
The urgent care at Minneapolis was filthy. The washing soap dispenser had been ripped from the wall, the floor was a mess with dirt and dust in the corners, there was an ear examining piece laying in the dust behind the exam table, and the butt-cheek marks from a previous patient were still in the paper cover of the exam table. When the nurse came to draw blood, she intentionally broke the glove, which is a huge violation of protocols. (There are reasons they are required to put those gloves on in the first place.)
They lost a full set of medical records I requested, stating they had sent them via the postal service. I checked with all the post offices between me and them as well as the paths the postal managers told me to check: no records. Oh, did I mention that they have completely lost a third of my records? Gone, forever, not to be found anywhere.
When I asked for a referral for my knee back to Mayo Clinic, which isn't that far away, they refused. Let's make it clear, it took them three weeks to get my request to the doctor. Then the doctor referred it to the medical director. Two weeks later I still hadn't heard anything back. I called again. The doctor finally left a voice message for me, telling me my request had been denied. He asked me to call him back, which I did, leaving a message for him to call me. After the next weekend, I get a call from some young woman asking me if I left a message for the doctor to call me. I can't believe it! They actually hire people and make up office protocols to create extra busy-body work. What a waste. This organization is a bunch of federal employee bureaucrats first, and medical personnel second.
I can't wait for the national health care system where we can pick our doctors. They can then dis-ban the VA health care system and use those funds for the national system. I just don't think my knee will make it those 3-4 years.
I have many other examples. I'm just concerned that if I put them all in one posting, people will think I'm making this stuff up. I'm not. The Minneapolis facility hires people who can't even spell the simplest of words, people who don't even know what HIPPA is, and have a culture that succeeds in lowering the bar of quality as compared to even keeping it at a previous level. Having been in corporate management, I can tell you, that facility suffers from many problems and the environment that current management has instilled is one of the worst issues.