Posted on 10/07/2006 11:44:36 AM PDT by lunarbicep
and yet...those who are here illegally, some who loathe the U.S. are treated everyday for free (to them). So so sad!
and yet these fools at VA claim they are ready to handle mass casuaties from a terrorist attack. We're living in a dream world.
Deport the illegals, and take care of our veterans!
>>>and yet these fools at VA claim they are ready to handle mass casuaties from a terrorist attack
As long as the attack happens before 4:30
If the Fire Department response time was 4 minutes to that particular spot, it seems that calling 911 was the correct thing to do. The Fire Department EMT's have everything they need already packed up and ready to roll at a moment's notice.
Just because a "staffer" works at a hospital does not mean he has any knowledge to offer in an acute medical emergency.
In regards to the ER, VA centers can be huge and it could take a lot longer than 4 minutes to get a crash team running out to a parking lot on the opposite side of the campus.
Not to defend the actions of the VA staff in question, but if the Paramedics arrived in four minutes it is highly doubtful that anything the VA hospital could have done in those four minutes would have made a difference.
But on the other hand to say that they could not have grabbed an intubation kit and a bag on the way out to a respiratory distress patient is beyond my understanding. These are not large or heavy objects and should be common in any hospital.
Everybody wants to be victims right along with the victim.
Leni
This REALLY, REALLY Pisses me off!
"The Spokane VA Medical Center is dedicated to providing quality health care services to veterans. In carrying out this mission, the VAMC focuses on providing primary and secondary care, with emphasis on preventive health and chronic disease management."
snipped from link below....there is a page linked here for the Spokane VAMC's unique website, but THAT site is presently down!
http://www1.va.gov/directory/guide/facility.asp?ID=126
I think this reporter fouled up this story big time. The VA has VA Hospitals which are regular hospitals and have an ER. The VA also has Medical Centers which are usually a complex with various clinics to see specialists.
This is how it works where I am, and if it works the same in Spokane then this man was not mistreated.
There is a VA Medical Center in El Paso, it looks like a small hospital and some people even refer to it as a VA hospital- it is not a hospital. It is really a complex of Drs offices. You go there to see your primary care physician and there are also **some** specialists there. They have a pharmacy. They have no ER, they have no way to treat life threatening things, only minor things. It's out patient based.
The actual VA hospital for us is located in Albuquerque, it is a full fledged hospital with an ER. There are not that many full fledged VA hospitals nationwide. Where we are we can either go to Albq. or Tucson VA hospitals, both about 4 hours away. There are VA clinics in many small towns, and the Medical Center in EP that I already described.
What it seems happened to this man is he asked to go to the Medical center, to see his Dr. and what he really needed was a hospital ER. If this was like the VA Med. center in El Paso that I am familiar with- they would have had to call and get an ambulance to get him to a hospital. (of course in EP Wm. Beaumont Army Hospital is next door- but not everyone eligible for VA care is eligible to be treated at WBAMC- hubby luckily is- so we don't have to go to Albq.)
For those not familiar with the VA system- think of it this way- if you are in the parking lot of your Drs office and you collapse- they will do their best to treat you and call 911 to get you to a hospital. That is exactly what I think happened here.
It seems this reporter did not do a lot of checking to see what happened and why. I am not surprised.
cut the nonsense
This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.healthyjobs.com/statejobsearch.cgi?location=West&pro= as retrieved on Sep 30, 2006 04:02:44 GMT.
ER Staffing needed at Spokane VAMC. IM's or FP's or ER physicians needed to cover 24/7.
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:XLKZ7Ad5yRoJ:www.healthyjobs.com/statejobsearch.cgi%3Flocation%3DWest%26pro%3D+Spokane+VAMC+ER+emergency+room&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3
I didn't mean for it to be "nonsense." There is a difference in facilities- I don't know how it works in Spokane- I do know how it works here for us. Hubby has been going to different VA facilities in this area for many years. They keep changing the names of everything and it is confusing.
If this Spokane facility does have an ER and is a full-fledged VA hospital then I do think they should have cared for him and not sure why they didn't. They may have been negligent or they may have been right that they couldn't care for him, and needed 911. He was taken to a civilian hospital according to the article- why was that? This is still a poorly written article and did not ask or answer the right questions. Why would a full-fledged hospital close at 4:30? That sounds like a regular VA complex w/Drs. Then you posted the want ad for ER personnel so I am just confused now, they must have an ER of some sort.
Maybe a freeper in the area can tell us what sort of facility this really is- I know many VA facilities have down-graded and some have closed in the past few years.
Sounds like a veterinary clinic to me!!
Here is link to their review in 2000, it does list that they do acute and surgical care. Acute care sounds like ER to me but I am not a medical person. What happened does not make sense, they should either be able to handle emergencies or not and I still can't figure it out. There has to be some reason the man was taken to a civilian hospital.
http://www.va.gov/oig/CAP/00-02062-22.pdf#search=%22VA%20Medical%20Center%20Spokane%20%22
"The actual VA hospital for us is located in Albuquerque, it is a full fledged hospital with an ER. There are not that many full fledged VA hospitals nationwide. Where we are we can either go to Albq. or Tucson VA hospitals, both about 4 hours away. There are VA clinics in many small towns, and the Medical Center in EP that I already described."
I agree Tammy8, it's the same here in Mobile...the hospital is in Biloxi.
If you call the VA here, the first thing that is said is: "If this is an emergency, hang-up and call 911."
The VA is getting a bumb-rap on this, IMO. You don't go to your GP's office if you're dying, you go to an emergency facility.
My dad died of a heart attack in the parking lot of his heart doctor, I don't blame the doctor.
I've been trying to track this down and I guess even the VA hospitals have different levels they can handle. They call it Tertiaty level. Albuquerque VA Hospital is a Tertiary level 1 which means basically it is a full fledged hospital, and they work with the civilian hospital/medical school there. Tucson is also a Tertiary level 1. What we need to know I guess is what Tertiarty level the Spokane facility is. It sounds like it is a hospital, but maybe not a high enough Tertiary level to treat this man.
It is confusing, and I am not sure how they expect Veterans to keep up with it- how are they supposed to know if their local VA hospital is a "real" one or not.
This also makes me angry, this man and his family may not have even known they could not treat him there. If that is true then it is negligence- maybe not of this hospital, but in the system.
I also totally agree with other posters that illegals are treated better medically than our veterans. An illegal can show up at any ER and get treated, they don't have to know how a complex system works to show up at the right ER to get treated for what ails them. Illegals use the ER for primary care and if a Veteran tried that- they would end up with the bill. If we don't follow all the millions of rules of VA care, and get all the right approvals for treatment for my hubby- we will get stuck with the bill.
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