VA problems are in most hospitals

Nurses Activism

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The National Patient Safety Foundation made this shocking admissions last year: "psychological safety of the workforce... conspicuously absent or considered optional in many care-delivery organizations..Under these conditions, it is difficult for caregivers to to meet the challenge of making health care safe for patients they serve...makes it clear that the manager, or person in the gradient of hierarchy above the worker, possesses interests that are more important than the planned efforts of the health care worker."

Arizona Republic description:

" workers who asked not to be named because they fear retribution...current and former staffers allege that employees who point out flaws-or try to improve the system from within-are bullied by bosses who won't acknowledge the system is broken because to do so would damage their careers. Retaliation against whistle-blowers, discrimination and mismanagement have caused an exodus of nurses and doctors, insiders said, so that remaining employees are chronically overworked and stressed out."

Does any of this sound familiar?

Specializes in Critical Care.

...You will note. I spoke for myself. I said that I have a fear (and I think a reasonable one) of becoming vulnerable to venal people... and study after study indicates that some upper echelon VA executives (BTW: a non-trivial number of them) are, indeed mendacious, self-serving, sociopaths (i.e., people who are incapable of empathizing with or seeing the humanity in others.) ...

I don't argue that the VA could use some serious house cleaning, or better yet just start over, but I'm hesitant to believe that the above description couldn't just as easily apply to privately run insurance company administrators.

Specializes in Education, research, neuro.

I don't argue that the VA could use some serious house cleaning, or better yet just start over, but I'm hesitant to believe that the above description couldn't just as easily apply to privately run insurance company administrators.

Oh, my... are you ever right. The administrator at our town's main facility was an absolute reptile. Past tense. The board finally got rid of him. But even that sociopath had to keep the hospital accredited, had to keep patient satisfaction scores up and so on. He finally over-stepped, the cardiology group he scr*wed took him to court, the feds convicted him for restraint of trade, AND got him for perjury. You know the old saying... "discovery is a b*tch" and once his evil was exposed... gone.

You raise a good point in making the comparison. It took a great deal to get rid of him because he was cunning... and the facility itself during his tenure rendered good care.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

Why is there no heat on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs?

Aren't they Congressional group assigned the responsibility for oversight of the VA?

The problems with the VA health system far out reach any one president but fall SQUARELY into the laps of the Congress who control the legislation and purse strings.

Specializes in Dialysis.

The VA has never worked and since it's inception has been mired in scandal. Shinseki's resignation will not change the culture of corruption that lies at the heart of the VA.

Belmont Club » The Revenge of Arithmetic

Specializes in Education, research, neuro.

Richard Fernandez is brilliant.

Specializes in ICU.

That sounds a lot like most any community hospital in the south east/mid atlantic region.

"We don't need no cath for a STEMI on the weekend."

3 years at Memphis VA. I was also a shop steward in the union so I would have been aware of disciplinary actions throughout the hospital. No one was ever fired. The house staff refered to the wards as "the killing fields". The level of care was appalling. Because the hospital didn't want to open the cath lab on the weekend patients with an active MI were "stabilized" until monday rolled around. I witnessed three pts die that would have been taken to the cath lab immediately if they had been in a private hospital.
Specializes in Dialysis.
That sounds a lot like most any community hospital in the south east/mid atlantic region.

"We don't need no cath for a STEMI on the weekend."

The hospital I currently work at meets the national standard of door to balloon time of less than 90 minutes 24/7. From the fourth floor I can see the Memphis VA.

“From where we were the first three years and I look at where we are now, our door-to-balloon time is at best practice,” Maliot said. “I can tell you that through January to May of this year, out of our four adult hospitals we’ve had 57 patients come in with a STEMI. Fifty-six out of the 57 patients the first five months had a door-to-balloon time under 90 minutes.

http://www.memphisdailynews.com/news/2009/aug/19/methodist-rewarded-for-quality//print

Specializes in Education, research, neuro.

I don't know about the reference to Southerners. Let's see... there's UAB where the transplant service is amazing. Hmmmm... how many Nobel Laureates are at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas these days? And, you know... we wouldn't be doing clot busting at all if it hadn't been proofed at Duke (which last time I checked was in Durham, NC). Aaaannnd, hmmmm... there's that trivial little noplace in Atlanta Oh, yeah, Emory. (They're the best, you know. All you gotta do is ask 'em). And you'd be amazed. Down south, mostly all of us can read. Why... you mighta even read a book or two that was written by one of us.

I could go on but you get my drift.

Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
The hospital I currently work at meets the national standard of door to balloon time of less than 90 minutes 24/7. From the fourth floor I can see the Memphis VA.

“From where we were the first three years and I look at where we are now, our door-to-balloon time is at best practice,” Maliot said. “I can tell you that through January to May of this year, out of our four adult hospitals we’ve had 57 patients come in with a STEMI. Fifty-six out of the 57 patients the first five months had a door-to-balloon time under 90 minutes.

Methodist Rewarded For Quality - Memphis Daily News

I think any hospital with an ER, VA or other needs to care for all patients or transport immediately to a hospital that can provide the needed care.
Specializes in Critical Care.
3 years at Memphis VA. I was also a shop steward in the union so I would have been aware of disciplinary actions throughout the hospital. No one was ever fired. The house staff refered to the wards as "the killing fields". The level of care was appalling. Because the hospital didn't want to open the cath lab on the weekend patients with an active MI were "stabilized" until monday rolled around. I witnessed three pts die that would have been taken to the cath lab immediately if they had been in a private hospital.

I think you're confusing "an active MI" with a STEMI. A STEMI is a type of active MI, but not all who present with active MI's are STEMIs. The door to balloon standard is for STEMIs. I've worked both public and private facilities, including one that was a teaching center for advanced cardiac interventions, and in none of them were cath codes called or were on-call staff called in for non-STEMIs that were stabilized, there's not really any reason to in terms of outcomes.

Specializes in Dialysis.

there's not really any reason to in terms of outcomes.

I guess that would be comforting to the families of the three vets who I know that died over the weekend. Beyond what I witnessed I was good friends with one of the attending cardiologists who was also disgusted by what he saw. Wouldn't you find it strange if the cath lab you worked at was never called in over the weekend? For 3 years? Could it possibly have been related to a bonus for the director of the cath lab if he didn't open on the weekend?

The Memphis Veteran Administration (VA) Medical Center approved over $1 million in bonuses months before closing a therapeutic aquatic pool citing a lack of funds.

Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.
I guess that would be comforting to the families of the three vets who I know that died over the weekend. Beyond what I witnessed I was good friends with one of the attending cardiologists who was also disgusted by what he saw. Wouldn't you find it strange if the cath lab you worked at was never called in over the weekend? For 3 years? Could it possibly have been related to a bonus for the director of the cath lab if he didn't open on the weekend?
What you are suggesting is not just medical malpractice, but criminal negligence.

The Memphis Veteran Administration (VA) Medical Center approved over $1 million in bonuses months before closing a therapeutic aquatic pool citing a lack of funds.

Read more: VA Hospital Axed Program Approved $1 Million Bonuses | The Daily Caller

Totally different, but in the private sector this happens all the time. However, you don't hear about it because they don't have to tell anyone, unlike the VA.

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