Vamc Clinic Visit

[Bound4heaven]

Greetings to all,

Two weeks ago I have a visit with a neuroligist about migraines. He also examined my feet because of no sensation in my toes. I requested the clinic notes and noticed he said wrote down several things that did not take place and if the RO seen them it might question the severity of one of my disabilities which I am rated at 100% loss of use.

I sent a letter directly to the doctor with a copy of the clinic report (the examiner in question is a resident and not a Dr) I highlighted the areas of issue and ask that they be removed, because it did not take place and I enclosed a self-addressed envelope for him to send me a copy of the corrected report.

I do not know if he will or will not do it, if he will not do it I will send a copy of the sent letter and clinic report and file a complaint with the patient's advocate office.

I have made a decision that I will never see again a specialist at the VA ( I have medicare). I see my primiary VA Dr once a year at a nearby clinic.

What do you guys think of writing the letter to the resident? was that you feel a good move?

God bless you all.

Bound4Heaven

[Bound4heaven]

Greetings,

Thank you for your reply as well. You correct I will also send him a letter with all copies mailed to the resident and patient advocate as well. God bless you.

Bound4Haeven

[vaf]

I've stated this before but it warrants repetition. Nurse practioners, physicians, physician's assistants and the like, do not need to hold medical licenses in the state in which they are working for the VAMC. The VAMC will also refuse to tell the veteran what credentials the C & P examiner holds, resident or otherwise, and where they were earned. I know this from personal experience; they hide behind the privacy act. Just because an examiner wears a white labcoat, we are expected to accept that the examiner is qualified to conduct the exam.

I worked for a state hospital with a medical school attached. For residency practicums, we accepted graduates from our medical school, as well as from other schools in the country, and from other countries. Medical school graduates practicing their residencies under our authority would work at the local VAMC as part of their rotation schedule. I discovered in my first month of employment that we had residents working rotations at the local VAMC with expired medical licenses from my state, a few by almost a year. At least I could track the residents who were practicing their residencies under our authority. Obviously, no one from the VA was checking anything along these lines.

I was helping a local veteran with a claim, who received a C & P exam from a person who turned out to be a nurse practioner (which I found out through no help from the VAMC) conducting a cardiac C & P. I called the Patient Advocate's Office trying to determine what credentials the examiner held, and the office refused to tell me anything about the examiner. My state has a website wherein I could check to see if they held a state license here. The examiner's name wasn't listed, and I had no idea where the guy was licensed. I had to use some personal contacts inside the VAMC to determine the examiner was a nurse practioner from out of state.

Flawed C & P exams constitute a scourge perpetrated against disabled veterans, and deserve an immediate complaint to the Patient Advocates' office, as well as a certified letter to the VARO challenging the exam, and demanding another one conducted by someone credentialed in the area being examined.

[Bound4heaven]

Greetings,

Thank you all for your replies. The other issue my wife brought up was this. How can a resident work in a clinic without a supervisior in tyhe room? I did not realize he was a resident until I ask him how long has he been a doctor? I should have followed my wife's lead as she wanted to leave asap. I was in severe pain due to migraines and I allowed him to give me trigger point injections in the lower skull in the upper neck.

The pain went away until 2 days later when the area he gave me the injections I began to expirence shooting pains fron that area into both shoulders and neck that I went to an ER visit with my Chiorpractor. After he perform the necessary adjustement and ice on the area for 2 days did the pain go away.

Thats when I needed advice here from hadit members. Thank you and God bless.

Bound4Heaven

[Jay Johnson]

A resident needs only to report to a licensed MD; he/she does not need said MD present at all times.

This brings up an interesting, yet horrible, story about my wife in the AF: While my wife was pregnant with our 3rd child, we had decided that she should have her tubes tied because 3 was enough (too many in my opinion:-), so the head of obstetrics, who was her doctor at sheppard AFB, said he would tie them right after the delivery so she wouldn't have to go through another recovery. Well, the delivery came and went and she asked the doctor to tie her tubes. The doctor then informed her that he did not want to tie her tubes while she was that young (22yrs old) because, "it would look bad on my record when I try to pass my medical boards". Yup, the ***HEAD*** of obtetrics at SAFB wasn't even a licensed MD and he had the entire department reporting to him (the rest were PAs or NPs). I'm not sure who he reported to, if anyone, but I was shocked when I heard it; especially given that SAFB is a fairly large base given it is the main technical training base for the air force.

Yet another reason not to touch VA health care (or military for that matter) with a ten foot pole.....avoid at all cost imo.

[vaf]

Interestingly enough, the "licensed MD" to whom the resident reports has no personal knowledge of, experience or history with, the patient. No direct "hands-on" examination of that patient.

If the VA accepts this arrangement with its own in-house professionals, I'll expect it to accept the same standard with the independent medical opinion we received from Dr. Bash.

[Bound4heaven]

Greetings,

I just wanted to thrown out a bone on this and ask, "Does a Real Medical Doctor need to be in the same clinic when a resident is seeing patients"?

When I saw this resident in question there were no doctors in the clinic only residents. How can this be leagal and ethical? I made these points also to the letters I sent to the patients advocate, and Chief of Medical Doctors.

Where is the accountability here. Every time I go to pricvate health care (which I will always as of now) if my appointement was with a specialist then I saw a specialist, not a resident.

How can the VAMC allow residents to have free run on sevely disabled veterans, when in fact the residents lack the education and expirence that a specialist would have?

I informed the the VAMC that Veterans deserve better care then this. I will not ever again allow myself to be a ginny pig in order for the resident to get his quota in order to graduate.

It was like an assembly line in that clinic. Any thoughts? God bless you all.

Bound4Heaven

Edited July 30, 2007 by Bound4heaven