Unless they clean up the VA system from the bottom
Nothing will change.
As a federal contract worker I have seen how bad it can get.
Too many front line health care workers start their day off with "I can't, I won't, I'm not gonna" when it comes to patient care. The last thing on their mind is doing right by the vets. And sadly, many of these workers are vets themselves. One of whom has been known to pull out his health insurance card and brag about HE would go elsewhere instead of having to use a VA hospital. But he is also the same person who if he senses he is about to get in any sort of trouble for his behavior at work, he holds up his "Army Vet" tag that the VA gives vet workers to attach to their name badge (different branch tags depending on what part they served in). His way of saying the system won't act on his behavior because he is a vet. He is "protected" by the very system he is helping to destroy.
Best way to clean up the place? Send in "undercover bosses" who are really from DC and see what goes on behind the scenes with front line workers. See them coming in late, leaving early, ignoring patients, surfing the Internet their whole shift. And good luck trying to get these lazy asses to work or heaven forbid you report the to the immediate supervisor. Once that gets back to the worker who was reported, the person trying to fix the system is then targeted with bullying, retaliated against, etc
Morale is so bad amongst people trying to do the right thing because you just know that if you try to point out the lazy ass ones who treat the vets badly the backlash will be on a daily basis and you then have an even more hostile workplace to put up with.
OIG in on station now at our hospital. Will that fix anything? Probably not.
We are talking about a hospital that sends vets who have cardiac caths or stents placed to a medicine floor that has no telemetry beds. Wouldn't see that happen at a private hospital.
We just end up hoping that if something goes wrong post op the vet shows us some symptoms instead of coding or dying.
Staffing is horrible. Sometimes 3 nurses for 18 or more patients with no techs on the floor to help.
So excuse us when those of us who work frontline at VA hospitals don't show much faith in the VA policing itself...we see what happens on a daily basis and this is not going to get fixed til some frontline workers are shown the door.
Keep in mind the first words out of the bad workers are "I'm going to the union!!" One woman even said to a group of other workers "I have to be part of the union and pay the monthly dues cuz I act a fool up here sometimes".
I think the only time I heard of someone actually being fired from there is when a sitter left a vet's bedside, the patient fell, died from the injury and the family pursued it. The sitter was fired. We use sitters (it's call being placed on close observation) when the vet is in danger of getting up and falling or if their altered mental status puts them in danger of hurting themselves. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for these sitters to leave the room, fall asleep IN the room, or be absorbed into surfing the Internet on a portable computer instead of watching the vet.
Sorry to vent for so long....just tired of hearing how the suits in DC think they will fix the VA system.
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