VA Administrators Take Note As Veterans Vent

More than a hundred veterans turned out for a town hall style meeting hosted by Veterans Administration Puget Sound as an effort to improve care at regional hospitals.

David Winter served in the Gulf War. He has post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

“I’ve seen my psychiatrist three times this year for 20 minutes,” Winter said. “That’s what you get. You get 20 minutes with your psychiatrist every six weeks.”

He added that his primary care doctor was more than an hour late for a scheduled phone appointment and never called for the second.

When he inquired about the missed appointment, Winter was told he was the no show. “I waited by that phone,” he said. “She never called.”

Joel Mitchel, behavioral health director for the VA Puget Sound, was contrite.

“Plainly put, the scenario you described is unacceptable. There’s no way around that,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell promised to follow up and VA staffers were in the audience taking notes. In some cases administrators on the panel directed staffers to follow up with vets after the meeting.

While other veterans in attendance credited the VA for saving their lives, many said they had issues with the length of time and effort it takes to get seen.

Some drove long distances to be there. One veteran from the Olympic Peninsula told the panel of administrators that he spends days in Seattle for medical appointments that he argues should be available in his area.

Others asked for more practical appointment hours. Puget Sound Director Michael Murphy said that they’ve started extending some clinics hours but more could be done.

Some of the issues are a matter of work force. Murphy told the audience that there are currently 300 positions open at VA Puget Sound. But he said that it’s difficult to be competitive.

Veteran Scott Pondelick told administrators to get out of their offices and walk the floors of the hospital to see what’s really going on.

Overall, officials did more listening then talking.

Wednesday’s forum and others like it across the country come as the VA tries to recover from allegations of slow care and falsifying records to cover up the delays.

As of August the VA inspector General was still looking into an audit that found a third of schedulers interviewed at the Lakewood and Seattle VAs were told to alter how long vets waited for their appointments.