Veterans demand review of Augusta VA patient advocates MICHAEL HOLAHAN/STAFF We are not a perfect organization, but we have tried very hard to build a veteran-centric organization, said Bob Hamilton, the director of the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center. By Wesley Brown Staff Writer Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014 11:16 PM Last updated Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014 1:20 AM The patient advocate staff at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center came under fire Tuesday after veterans accused the program of ignoring complaints of botched treatments, neglected care and forged records. During the town-hall meeting, a two-hour outreach event held by the hospital, more than 100 veterans demanded a review of the program specifically designated at the Augusta hospital to work directly with management and employees to facilitate resolutions for possible lapses in care or treatment. Outbursts and criticism raged during the question-and-answer period, during which veterans shared stories of advocates failing to address concerns of many nurses and doctors being more concerned with receiving a paycheck than providing quality treatment. One woman said her husband, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, went to the Augusta VA for a knee operation in January and left with a fractured spine. He can no longer walk and suffers from hallucinations because he was taken off his medications. His paperwork said he walked out of the hospital, the wife said. “It’s a joke,” Guy Albert Guyton III, a resident of the Augusta VA’s Community Living Center, said of the hospital’s patient advocate program. “We go to the patient advocate and nothing gets done.” Guyton, 57, said he has had nightmares and flashbacks of a head-on vehicle collision he witnessed outside the Upper Heyford Royal Air Force station in northern England that decapitated a couple and seriously injured another family. After the former military police officer left the force in 1979, he said the Department of Veterans Affairs originally claimed his problems were the result of “battle fatigue” or “shellshock.” In 2000, the agency diagnosed him as having post-traumatic stress disorder, but the New York native said the VA didn’t start treatment until March, when he began meeting a psychologist at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center weekly to unlock decades of dormant stress. Now, Guyton, who was admitted in 2013 for leukemia blood work, said patient advocates have ignored complaints of hospital staff seizing his belongings, leaving filled urine containers on his food tray and trying to forcibly discharge him from the domiciliary. “Who is going to sit down with us and take our problems seriously?” asked Guyton, who has records and pictures documenting his complaints. “I’ve been to seven VA hospitals and this has the worst customer service.” Augusta VA Director Bob Hamilton assured veterans that staff will answer their questions with “civility and respect,” as policy states. He made no mention of a review. “We are not a perfect organization, but we have tried very hard to build a veteran-centric organization,” Hamilton said. “More than a third of our staff are veterans. This is their health care system.” During his opening remarks, Hamilton said the hospital has decreased wait times in specialty and mental health care in the past four months to 46 days and 27 days, respectively. He added that the hospital is expanding its optometry, ophthalmology and dermatology programs by opening new clinics, hiring one to two additional employees in those departments and reworking provider schedules to improve availability. Outside those successes, however, he said primary care wait times have increased from 28 days to 41 days from May 15 to Sept. 1, and that 29 veterans continue to wait at least 90 days for appointments, 23 in home-based and inpatient primary care. Hamilton blamed the increase on personnel turnover in the hospital’s women’s health clinic and a program for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. He said that his team is working to implement a standardized scheduling system and streamline its hiring process to attract new recruits. The hospital’s nursing staff received its first raise since 2008 this year. Though Hamilton told veterans the town hall was the first of many planned to rebuild trust, improve service delivery and set the course for long-term reform, many in attendance said they wanted action now. Some believed substandard care was the result of union employees who are protected from being disciplined or fired when they don’t follow rules and procedures. Others blamed VA administration for endorsing policies that create age and disability requirements for veterans to receive educational assistance, disability compensation or health care treatment. “We should not have to go to veteran advocacy groups to get what we need,” said homeless and disabled Army veteran Leonard Eubanks, 63. “No veteran should be restricted any benefit.” Comments (1)
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:59:01 +0000
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