I agree. I live miles from the VAMC I go to for all my care. Miles translates into almost 90 miles. When I need to talk to someone after hours I call a regional VA number, speak with a nurse and, after reading my record, transfers me to an appropriate facility. It has proved to be faultess.
My PCP was and is able to acces my records since 2006 and pick out the pertinent information. Of course, I think she is the smartest woman the VA has ever hired. And, actually she may be.
Never have I had a problem of inaccessible medical information while at the VA.
Actually, I don’t “get” it why it has to be changed? I think someone decided to make some money.
And what will the programs like Myhealthevet.gov or the Million Vet programs do with their data? I have no idea about all the programs dependent on data will do in the VA system?
I smell a disaster, denial, and monstrous amounts of money to fix it.
“Never have I had a problem of inaccessible medical information while at the VA.”
Not just within your VA. You could be on vacation and go to any VA Hospital anywhere and they have your medical records.
It also saves you from having a lot of duplicate tests. Your Internist can order a blood test and all the other MD’s can use the same results rather than retesting.