about single-payer socialistic healthcare systems.

in Houston emergency room. She died there while waiting.

pretty sad even the VA can't get their triage act together.

It is not uncommon for a patient to be held over in the ED for 24-48 or more if suicidal and waiting for a mental health bed to open up in another facility. Don't blame the particular ED, blame the cuts in mental health and availability of resources.

Similarly, it is not uncommon for hospitals not to have an open telemetry bed or ICU bed, so a patient will stay in the ED for an extended period.

It must be stressed: these people are not waiting in the ED waiting room. They are active ED patients, being treated, not neglected. That woman with the "pounding heartbeat" was certainly on cardiac monitor for the 24 hours that she was in the ED, and certainly being treated for any instability, perhaps received a consult from cardiology in the ED and probably already assessed by the hospitalist.

Just out of curiosity, and not meant to attack, but have you ever spent time in a VA emergency department? I have and your generalizations and assumptions are not correct....Peace

I waited 3 hours, then decided screw it and went to a walk-in clinic and paid out of pocket. They don't give a shit, seriously.

I work at a VA facility and the bed control dept is horrible.
They ignore the vets' diagnosis and chart notes written by doctors who will write orders to send a vet to a specialty ward. I can't tell you how many times my medical/surgical ward has gotten vets who should be on a cardiac ward having the hearts monitored on telemetry or a seriously ill psych vet is put on our ward...all because there are no available beds on the wards they should be placed on. Instead of saying "we don't have an available bed on the correct ward so we need to transfer you to an outside facility" they put the vets on the wrong wards, a decision that puts the vets' safety at risk.

Front line workers like myself try to fight the system to no avail. All bed control cares about is getting the vet off their wait list. It is truly an unsafe, crappy system. My coworkers and I all say that a tragedy has to happen before the system will change. Considering how much our facility has been on the local news lately about crappy patient care, you wold think our facility would start doing the right thing by the vets. Instead they just keep pushing their luck with how they run the system.

The vets and their family has no idea they have been placed in the "wrong ward", they just know that they have finally gotten to a room/bed. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, we are arguing with the powers that be about getting the vets to the place they need to be.

Hospitals with ED's closed their psych units across the country in order to avoid having to admit them.

It's a national tragedy and our shame.

He said I could post it.


In my own experience, after three weeks of trying, I have
been completely unable to make an appointment of any
kind with one of my medical providers. I call the number,
get no answer, but a computer voice tells me to leave a
message and the last four numbers of my SSN. After
seven tries... I gave up. I receive no callbacks and no
conformation of an appointment by mail or by phone.
Nothing. I am not just slipping throught he cracks at
the Baltimore VA Hospital, but my medical needs are
being completely and totally ignored. That's... medical
neglegence. Most VA personnel just doesn't care,
period, not even 'professionally'. I have also been
terribly misdiagnosed, time and again, while I go on
for, well... years now, without any treatment. They
then force me to suffer and there isn't a gosh darned
thing that I can do about it. The people of the VA
simply couldn't care less. It's a complete national
embarassment! And... it's cruel to me and a great
many other Vets.