25 May 2014 Cassi Creek
Back to where it was
In 1972 I did
part of my clinical rotations at HST VA
Hospital. The system then was restricted
to vets with service-connected injuries.
The patient wards were occupied by older men who were essentially being
warehoused after their service in WWI, WWII, &/or Korea.
In those days
clinical lab instrumentation didn’t all have the high-pitched alarms to summon
the operator. I learned to keep a
mechanical timer with me so that I could work with the instruments of my
profession.
My hearing
loss and tinnitus, was documented by the Army but no one suggested that I might
be eligible for follow-on care with VA. I
didn’t have enough information about service connected hearing loss to file my
own claim with VA. My hearing
deteriorated progressively and I was finally brought into the VA system in
2002. The criteria for admission to the
system and the hospitals had been expanded since my last contact with VA in 1980
– Agent Orange screening . It took about
6 months to run through various screening appointments and I spent a lot of
days in the VA waiting rooms.
After moving
to TN, my hearing was re-evaluated and I was provided a 2nd set of
hearing aids. I’ve also become further
disabled (service connected) due to PTSD and Parkinson’s Disease – both service
connected. There is an appeal pending on
the degree of disability due to Parkinson’s that has been somewhere in the
clerical chain for about 6 months now. I’m
told it will take another 18 or so to migrate toward review.
In the mean
time, I see various providers for glaucoma, Parkinson’s and my primary care
doctor. Previously, I’ve been happy with
the quality of care I’ve received. I
would probably be seeing private- outside – physicians at about the same
frequency as I currently see my VA providers.
Lately, my hearing has become even more damaged and my hearing aids less
useful and less comfortable. I’ve been
trying to schedule a new audiology evaluation for almost a year now. Audiology is one of the services that is poorly staffed
when the number of veterans with hearing loss is considered. My primary care doctor’s clerk was asked to
schedule an appointment. He told me
that I could call and schedule my own.
That led nowhere when I was told by the Audiology intake desk that I
hadn’t been seen in over two years and would need a referral from my primary
care doc, or from the audiology techs who work on hearing aids. So far, I’ve been going round in circles with
no one able or willing to schedule a new evaluation.
While I
really haven’t encountered much delay and misdirection, I have hit some walls
in obtaining treatment. When I tried to
schedule a screening colonoscopy the first available appointment was 11 months
distant. That was then canceled and
rescheduled for 13 months from the initial request. The vision clinics are also overloaded and
under staffed. Now I’m finding the same
delays as I try to have my hearing re-evaluated.
I’ve looked
at my VA outpatient care as objectively as possible. I don’t believe that private insurance and
providers would have offered any higher level of care. But I’m running into situations and delays
now that seem to stem from what has once more become an over-loaded,
under-staffed, and badly underfunded system.
While I’ve never encountered any resentment or been made to feel
unwelcome by VA staff, I see the levels of satisfaction with VA care dropping
as other veterans experience the same problems.
I don’t think
that I’m encountering the hidden schedules that have surfaced in Arizona and
other facilities. But the possibility
that VA is once more becoming the agency it was in the 1970’s is very
disturbing.
