Another VA Scandal

[LongBlade]

Sheesh.

A recent investigation has uncovered a shocking tale of corruption and adultery at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Susan Taylor, a longtime federal employee and Deputy Chief Procurement Officer at the Veterans Health Administration since 2010, not only used her position to award government contracts to a former business partner, and worked with said company to hide the thousands and thousands of dollars it was making off the government, but conspired with her married boyfriend — who also had close personal ties to the company — to thwart investigations into her misconduct.

source: http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/30/top-va-official-conspired-with-her-married-boyfriend-to-thwart-investigations/

[BanzaiCat]

This is not surprising.

What is surprising is that more of this kind of corruption is not found.

[Steelgrave]

Yeah, this is the kind of thing which is in no way VA specific. I'm sure incidents such as this are far more widespread than we would care to believe. It's unfortunate timing for the VA though, given their recent newsworthy incidents.

[BanzaiCat]

I'm sure they have some bright spots, but I have nothing but venom for the VA overall. My stepdad died from cancer back in 1984 and the level of care at the VA hospital in San Antonio was horrid. Couldn't find a more apathetic group of nurses and doctors - my mother was beside herself. It was bad enough watching her husband wither away but to have to deal with that on top of it - anyway, that pretty much ingrained me with VA hospitals in general.

Also dealt with them a few times as a paramedic...the local VA hospital here was fairly large and clean but the staff were a bunch of no-personality bureaucratic dicks. It didn't do much to alleviate my opinion of government-run healthcare, not to mention healthcare for those that really need and deserve it - our vets.

[Steelgrave]

I'm sorry to hear your stepdad had such poor care from the VA. As it turns out, I was living in San Antonio in 1984. My stepdad was a chronic alcoholic who, after years and years of failure, finally kicked the bottle after an inpatient stint at the same VA. He never had anything other than praise for the San Antonio hospital and staff. I've shared before that my wife is a retired USAF First Sgt and that she just earned her PsyD. She is taking her intern year at an east coast VA with the intention of working as a VA Psychologist. She also served the vet community while we were living in Phoenix, working at VA satellite facilities counseling vets with PTSD. She still has a lot of First Sgt in her and gives a damn about her "troops", retired or not. As such, she looks at things as a vet first, not as a VA employee. Already, she has seen good and bad. But she, as many others she has met, are working in the VA because they care about vets, having either served themselves or have close family who were veterans. There are a lot more like her, providers trying to give the very best care possible while wading through the red tape and roadblocks put up by the bureaucrats running the show.

It's worth noting that the same Phoenix VA screwed her over when she went to them as a patient. Your mileage may definitely vary if you are a vet attempting to access care in the VA system.

None of this is to suggest that I disagree with your take on the VA. The VA is a huge bureaucracy, which is in itself the cause of most of the problems. You are going to encounter great health care providers and terrible providers...but I've had the same thing happen on the civilian side. Government-run healthcare is, by definition, a commitment to mediocrity. The very best doctors in the system can be frustrated and handicapped by the bureaucrats running the hospitals; the worst doctors shrug, put in their hours and wait for retirement.

Vets deserve better. Unfortunately, that's a phrase you will hear politicians repeat over and over again without doing anything to solve the problems. They will throw more money at the system without acknowledging how the system itself is the problem. But hey, the same folks running the show brought us Obamacare. That's reason for hope....right?  :-\

[BanzaiCat]

Wilford Hall Medical Center, right?

I have no doubt that there are some diamonds in the rough of the VA system. And that's awesome, Steelie, that your wife does that. I've got a friend that just got her counseling license and is trying to get a job doing the same thing at Fort Hood (though she's having trouble with the licensing and the bureaucrats over there, but I digress).

Ultimately perception is reality, and I admit I was a young kid (13) and my mother's fear and crying went a long, long way to laying the foundations for my own experiences. I was witness to several of them, one of which was dropping a glass bottle of transfusion red cells on the floor in his room, then leaving the mess there for hours. Literally, hours. That one stuck out in my mind probably because of my own experiences working around blood and body fluids - namely you clean that up, and damn fast.

Anyway, the system certainly needs more good people, but more than anything it needs good people at the top to pull the weeds out by the roots and rebuild the garden so it works the way it was intended to.

[Steelgrave]

Wilford Hall was active duty, not VA. Retirees up to a certain age can be seen at active military hospitals, if there is availability. From personal experience, I would rate WHMC very, very poorly. There was a separate VA hospital in San Antonio, Audie Murphy Memorial VA. That's where my stepdad went.

And I couldn't agree more with your statement "more than anything it needs good people at the top to pull the weeds out by the roots and rebuild the garden so it works the way it was intended to". Well put

[Steelgrave]

misfire....

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

None of this is to suggest that I disagree with your take on the VA. The VA is a huge bureaucracy, which is in itself the cause of most of the problems. You are going to encounter great health care providers and terrible providers...but I've had the same thing happen on the civilian side. Government-run healthcare is, by definition, a commitment to mediocrity. The very best doctors in the system can be frustrated and handicapped by the bureaucrats running the hospitals; the worst doctors shrug, put in their hours and wait for retirement.

Vets deserve better. Unfortunately, that's a phrase you will hear politicians repeat over and over again without doing anything to solve the problems. They will throw more money at the system without acknowledging how the system itself is the problem. But hey, the same folks running the show brought us Obamacare. That's reason for hope....right?  :-\

Why can't you do for the hospitals what you did for public schooling - add competition with charter schools.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

We have the same issue up here with all public hospitals. In general, for highly skilled people like doctors, they do their work well to be able to take pride in it. Now that I think about it, doctors have a lot of control over the care decisions. Hospital admin can really only get in their way by budgeting for equipment. If the doctor feels they do not have what the patient needs they probably ship the patient to another hospital. Here in Alberta anything slightly complex seems to get shipped to Calgary or Edmonton. Regional hospitals are basically emergency care. At least that is how it seems from hearing neighbor's stories of their care.

[eyebiter]

.

[Toonces]

Steelie,
I didn't know that about your wife.  Please tell her thank you on my behalf for what she does.

[Steelgrave]

Steelie,
I didn't know that about your wife.  Please tell her thank you on my behalf for what she does.

Thank you, Toonces. I certainly will.