My VA Saga. If you want to know what Obamacare will look like in the future, heres a glimpse. I injured my leg on the 31st of July and called my wife to make an appointment with the VA for me on Monday when I got back into town. All well and good to this point. Monday, I see the doc and he gives me a couple of options. First one was to just to go the ER, second send me out for X-Ray and wait for report. At this point I just thought I had a tear in the muscle or a sprain and he wanted to rule out a break. I opt to go get the X-Ray at a non-VA provider. X-Ray taken and the tech says that something doesnt look right, hint hint, broken and provider said theyd have to send it to my doc on Tue. as the X-Ray has to be read by a radiologist. This is the start of hurry up and wait. It was to be read by the VA radiologist in Dallas, not one at the providers facility. So Wed. morning I get a call from the doc and he says bad news, Ive got a fracture and that the radiologist / ortho needs more films. Wed. afternoon I truck into Tyler for a second time this week, 40 min ride from my house, and get the orders for the non-VA provider. I request the disc of X-Rays so I can hand deliver them to the VA clinic so that they could get read. I was able to get this dropped off at 5pm despite the 4:30 closing of the clinic and the Admin there said shed get them into the system so the radiologist could give his/her report. Thursday I start to call to see if the report is in, not yet. I call again in the afternoon and still no report. I call about 4:15 or so and still no report and was told that the radiologist will get to it in order. This boggles the mind, dont they have more than one qualified radiologist / ortho on staff at a VA hospital? About 8 pm the administrator calls me and says that they got the report back and shed give it to my doc on Fri. morning. Fri. I call in and was told that theyd be calling me back shortly. Clinic opens at 7:30 and my call was about 8:30. By 9 I get a call from the doc who says they still need more film. They were to have taken pics of my ankle along with my knee. At this point my frustration level with the VA is overflowing. The doc said I needed to get film of my ankle. If I went that route Id be waiting until Mon. but probably Tue. to get the results. I had two other options, one was just to go Dallas, a 2 hour drive to the ER at the VA hospital or just get orders to go to a local ER room. I took this last option. Within a couple of hours I saw an ortho at the local hospital who looked at all the films that were currently on file. It is the imagining centers main hospital so all records are in network. Without taking any additional X-Rays, told me what the X-Ray on Mon. said, I had a fracture of the Fibula at the head and hed put me in a bending restrictive brace. So This ordeal which for those of you in the private sector, youd probably been diagnosed and cast / braced on the first day, maybe the second. The VA took 5 days and I was probably looking at 8 or 9. If I had the ability to drive 2 hours to the VA hospital and visit the ER I might have been fixed the same day. Of course you need a referral to see anyone other than a GP. I could not just call up the VA in Dallas and request an appointment with the orthopedic doctor there. One other thing to keep in mind. The VA has hours of 8am to 4:30 pm. If you need any help after that, its a 911 call or a trip to the nearest ER. Granted this is somewhat similar to the private world yet in the private world you can choose an office with different hours. At the VA, sorry Charlie, youre stuck. OH, and getting the VA to pay for NON-VA providers, its like pulling teeth on a Lion that is very much awake and POd. Just my little rant for the day. I should have taken Docs advice on Monday to just go to the ER. Next time Ill take the hint.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 03:41:13 +0000
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