VA Health Care Story in 6 Minutes Flat = It’s No Joke

Quickly (but not to slight it): The basics/basis about what occurred, and is on-going in the recent Veterans / VA Health Care Story that may be a real scandal .. depending on how things continue to unfold:

Recently, up and coming late show host Stephen Colbert mocked the latest possible scandal involving American Veterans concerning inadequate health care. Comedian John Stewart, added his two humor soaked bits on the subject as well. We acknowledge bringing humor to situations is certain people’s job .. and we grasp that in a sense, they just may of drawn positive attention to the matter by using humor.  With this stated, the objective here is to fairly report what is occurring without bias, slighting, or prejudice. In taking into consideration all factors, evidence, and aspects of this particular story (as any other we cover) LatestBuzz.info doesn’t practice batting from the right, left, or middle … we bat as to how the ball is being thrown. Consequently to us, any situation involving the sick, or ill American Veterans that possibly perished due to circumstances that could of been avoided is .. no joking matter.

The FACTS Before This Latest Buzz (what lead up to this):

For the past two years reports from various areas in the country including Pittsburgh, South Carolina, and Atlanta were popping up that Veteran Hospitals in these area’s were simply not up to snuff. Reports ranged from  uncleanliness to administrative mismanagement.

Who Reported it and to whom did they report it to?

The reports came from a few News Media Networks and a few major Newspapers who ran stories on the situations.  A few of these reports concerning the quality of care at a few VA Hospitals were pretty harsh. There were scattered stories of veterans that stated their treatment was inadequate. Certain families came forward in saying their loved ones waited too long for help.. some family’s went as far to say relatives died because of the wait.

What happened This Time? (the now)

More recently in December 2013, A physician of Internal Medicine named Sam Foote, at the Phoenix VA Hospital retired. He then met with a reporter from a Newspaper called the Arizona Republic claiming VA Patients at the hospital where he worked were put on waiting lists for treatment that were on paper but purposefully not entered in the computer. He stated these were “secret” waiting lists. The doctor claimed some patients passed away while waiting for proper care.

The paper waiting lists and requests for appointments were not following standard protocol and requests from patients to see doctors were supposedly shredded by hospital staff while other documents concerning the patients on the waiting lists were falsified in case an investigation by bodies governing or over-seeing VA Hospitals should occur. According to Foote, no information was entered in the computer and the secret paper based waiting lists were shredded. He insists there is a definite cover-up that occurred. Officials at the hospital say Foote is lying and that while admittedly short staffed and in need of restructuring, no situations as such ever occurred.

Who Originally Took Notice of The Current Situation?

Senator John McCain called for a Senate Investigation on the matter but the situation never drew major national attention. *The majority of media outlets have been accused of continuing to cover the story of missing flight Malasian370 in order to sweep the Veteran Health Care story under the rug. Veterans in the Arizona area started protesting, speaking out after the story broke and in turn the ball finally rolled in gaining the proper exposure … which is the situation right now.

Realistically:

Realistically, there has always been scrutiny (due to certain validity of inadequate health care) on VA Hospitals and their quality of care. There has been reports/complaints for decades from veteran patients much more than those receiving care from standard health care in percentage adjusted studies. Reports of waiting too long, and/or receiving inadequate care from physician were the most common complaints. In situations certain VA hospitals were the subject of uncleanly care facilities. VA Hospitals have always been scrutinized for such (and that is pretty concerning ..and should of been adequately addressed years ago).  Consider that within the past few years healthcare over-all, in a broad sense has been under the microscope. It seems there may be a slide occurring. There are some reports claiming official Veteran complaints has more than doubled nation wide in the past five years (although this has not been confirmed by the majority of studies). Could it be VA Care was already marginally below standard, and has now sunk with the entire industry but to a much lower rung on the latter than was before?

Obama’s Administration Response Before:

Some individuals feel President Obama largely ignored the situation. Some people feel he turned a blind eye to the reports. Others feel he talked the talk, but did not actually walk the walk.  Through some research, it is not fair to pin that as the reality or place any certainty on this, nor can we fully discount it.

In fairness, it seems the President genuinely cares about the well fare of our Veterans. From Obama’s voting record and his willingness to bring to the table support for retired military individuals it would seem The Obama Administration has the well-being of Veterans on their agenda one way or another (the core of many disputes is how to best achieve that well-being).

Additionally, President Obama maintains that as soon as the growing situation was brought to the administrations attention they immediately acted on it. With that said, there is still the “possibility” the growing situation was initially passed off or not taken with enough seriousness.  Possibly, there was not enough “solid” information to launch a full scale investigation until as of late? Perhaps the administration was simply dropping the ball?  In this regard nothing at the moment is close to probable so Latestbuzz.info will let you form your own opinion about the right, wrong or level of competence executed before.

Obama’s Administration Response Right Now:

As of now, The President is definitely taking steps to better investigate what occurred in Phoenix (and elsewhere involving the Veterans Administration Health Care situation). The Obama Administration has launched several investigations of Veteran health care facilities. The question remains, why so many investigations suddenly? Shouldn’t there have been well enough reason to move on all this before?

President Obama maintains his diligence using strong authoritative vocabulary in saying any cover-up, or even true negligence would be considered inexcusable. As a result of recent action Robert Petzel, the top official in Veterans Affairs actually stepped down (resigned)  after a Senate committee hearing on the matter. Eric Shinsekiand, Veterans Affairs Secretary was informed by President Obama that although The President believed Shinsekiand’s head and heart are in the right place, that if anyone from his sector ignored or covered up any complaints involving select facilities / documents there-of, he would be held personally accountable.

To date, as of May 26th 2014, there is no indication his department was part of any wrong doing but the investigations are still ongoing. A briefing on the investigation’s progress and it’s preliminary findings is to be held the week of May 25, 2014 to May 31, 2014.

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Posted by Latest Buzz - on May 24 2014. Filed under Latest Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry