The Union is shocked to hear what management is letting them get away with!
Posted on 04/13/2017 7:19:13 PM PDT by mdittmar
AFGE calls on the VA to address Inspector General’s report so veterans can ‘receive the quality care they deserve’
WASHINGTON – In response to the preliminary report from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of the Inspector General regarding the Washington, DC VA hospital, American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. issued the following statement:
“The mismanagement at the Washington, DC VA hospital exposed by the VA’s Inspector General is absolutely wrong. It is unconscionable that basic management functions such as making sure the hospital has adequate medical supplies and a reliable inventory system have been neglected.
“Some politicians and outside groups will inevitably try to exploit this situation to justify their privatization agenda. Others will use it to further their interest in politicizing the VA by installing political cronies rather than competent managers to fix the problems that have been identified. Neither privatization, nor putting political hacks in charge of hospitals is the answer to the crises the IG has identified. Either of these responses will only worsen the situation at the VA.
“The answer is to be honest about the cause of the problems and to address the root cause. Why were adequate supplies not purchased? Why were outdated medical supplies not removed? Why was no inventory system in place? Why were inspections of sterile rooms not conducted?
“If there were too few staff, or inadequate funding for the volume of work at the hospital, it is up to the leaders at the Veterans Health Administration to fix these problems immediately.
“For those who care about the welfare of veterans, this is not a moment to score political points. It’s a moment to get to work to solve these issues immediately. The very best problem-solvers and the most ardent allies of veterans are the VA’s frontline workers who care for veterans despite management failures. Many are even veterans themselves who also receive care at VA medical facilities.
“The 250,000 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs represented by the American Federation of Government Employees – 85,000 of whom are veterans themselves – want only to fix problems, not to exploit or politicize them. We stand ready to work with Secretary David Shulkin and Washington’s VA Medical Center’s leaders to solve each and every issue the IG has identified.
“Working together, we are certain we can address all of these issues so that the 98,000 veterans who rely on the Washington, DC VA hospital receive the quality care they deserve.”
The Union is shocked to hear what management is letting them get away with!
The bureaucrats at the VA are organized crime.
250,000 members of the union.
250,000 dues-paying members of the union.
ALL of them are perfectly innocent of ANY wrongdoing and sloth and negligence, but the (non-union !!!) “management” is guilty of everything by not asking for more systems and bureaucracy (more union members!) and more regulations?
Right. Yeah. Sure. /sarchasm
And be sure to get the anti-privatization comment in there!
It’s okay: Bernie Sanders and his friends got really rich. :)
If you really want to clean up this mess .. GET THE DAMN UNIONS OUT OF THERE.
OUR VETS DESERVE BETTER TREATMENT THAN THIS.
Give them a small ‘salary’ and then pay PER PATIENT - just like in the real world.
If they're paid like private sector doctors, they'll start acting like private sector doctors. Currently the relationship VA Doctors have with their patients is “Charitiable God” to ‘charity case’. It's demeaning. AND it creates the mess at these hospitals.
“Give them a small ‘salary’ and then pay PER PATIENT - just like in the real world.”
You might get doctors running patients in and out as quickly as possible to maximize their income.
One of my problems with the VA is getting any face time with doctors so I can get things treated.
I’ve been trying to get varicose vein socks for five years. Still don’t have them.
“Others will use it to further their interest in politicizing the VA by installing political cronies rather than competent managers to fix the problems that have been identified. Neither privatization, nor putting political hacks in charge of hospitals is the answer to the crises the IG has identified. Either of these responses will only worsen the situation at the VA.”
Despicable leftard swine. The problems are caused by the political hacks appointed by the demonrats over the past several decades.
I have retired vet friends who will drive 2 hours to VA Hospital in Richmond rather than 30 minutes to DC VA. Apparently it’s that bad.
VA to hold public hearings in late June on serious issues facing vets. Burn pits. Inclusion of hypertension as a Presumptive Illness. Wait times for vets having severe medical issues. Many other important matters. June 23-25 I think. Not sure if C-SPAN will cover.
Thank God that horrible GOP health care bill didn’t pass.. the management amendment would have forced veterans into the va gulag and given more choices to non citizens.
They, um sell the socks on amazon. Long live capitalism.
Yesterday our local VA clinic they were scrambling for simple but vital hand sanitizers.
“They, um sell the socks on amazon.”
1. I don’t patronize Amazon, because they are evil.
2. The socks I need cost over 80 bucks a pair, and I can’t afford that.
3. There’s a principle involved. The VA is supposed to provide them.
“Long live capitalism.”
1. Is that what you tell all the vets who need medical care? I guess I should have just gone to a civilian hospital when the VA forgot to schedule my surgery.
2. Capitalism certainly seems to have outlived the medical care I was promised when I put my paw in the air.
Though I agree with that comment, with VA management in the DC area, I'm sure most, if not all, the upper management jobs are patronage positions in nature.
The Zero administration valued ideology over competence, truly seen in his hires across the board.
I'm sure that is the major problem at the DC VA since other VA facilities run decently enough...
Plus you can fire every union employee and replace them with a non union employee, you will still have grossly incompetent and feckless management slugs running things.
Trump needs to replace the head of the hospital with a civilian hospital administer with carte blanche on making changes.
btt
Right - except under a sane system the patient (vet) could CHOOSE a different doctor to see within the system if some doctor was giving him the run around. If a doctor tried that crap in the real world his patients would NOT GO ALONG WITH IT BECAUSE WE'RE CUSTOMERS - NOT 'CHARITY CASES'.
That's the problem: incentives.
As long as 'doctors are God' and 'Vets Better Be Grateful' it will never change.
Create change: make the doctor a provider and the vet a customer and most of the VA's problems will go away on their own. The VA has set up a Stockholm Syndrome setting...
“except under a sane system the patient (vet) could choose a different doctor to see within the system if some doctor was giving him the run around.”
At my VA hospital, I have been given the runaround by…torturing my memory…at least five doctors. I had to request yet another doctor on 27MAR. Still waiting. My point is that when all the doctors are despicable scoundrels there is no effective recourse. At this VA hospital, all the doctors are despicable scoundrels, as is the director, and there is no way to make them act right. The veteran has nowhere to turn.
“If a doctor tried that crap in the real world his patients would not go along with it”
True, but ultimately not helpful. It’s not the outside world; it is a bureaucracy and a monopoly, responsible and accountable to no one. There is no way to put a VA hospital on report. The only reply you ever get from the VA is “Fuck off and die, troublemaker.” Your congressman will not help you. Your senator will not help you. The Inspector General will not help you. The VFW will not help you. The American Legion will not help you. The DAV will not help you. If you depend on the VA for your health care, abandon hope. You are a dead man.
“As long as ‘doctors are God’ and ‘Vets Better Be Grateful’ it will never change.”
I’m trying to hold on six more years, until my youngest is 18. When I saw that Trump put an Obamazoid lump of putrid filth in charge of the VA, I knew I wasn’t going to make it.
“Create change: make the doctor a provider and the vet a customer and most of the VA’s problems will go away on their own.”
To do that, the veteran must have some recourse when the bureaucrats (and VA doctors are more bureaucrat than doctor) refuse to do their jobs. There has to be someone who can—and will—punish them for malfeasance, and nothing like that exists in any of our bureaucracies.
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