Military Hospital Vs Va

[broncovet]

Yesterday, I injured my foot. Since I knew how bad VAMC care is in my city, I tried the local military hospital instead.

I have tried to ask them, "Are Veterans (disabled) eligible for care here?" And have not gotten a difinitave answer.

At the hospital, one lady told me, "Are you kidding? Of course Vets can come here"

Another lady said, "It depends on the clininc".

Finally, another lady said, "That determination is made by Mr. Brown, and I will take you to his office".

Of course he is gone, so she gives me his phone number, and, Mr. Brown has not returned my calls.

After all these conflicting answers, I simply showed up at the ER in the military on base hospital.

The nurse said, "This is for emergencies only". (Yes, I know that..it took about 2 months to get in at VA).

Finally, the Doc asked me if I had a PCP. I said I had one at VA but not here.

So she said she did not get involved with Tricare, to call them. (I dont have tricare..I think that is for retiree's only).

So, my qustion is can a disabled Vet use the military hospital for care since VAMC is lousey.

Example: My physical therapist at VAMC said that I have one leg longer than another. (I fractured my leg in the military). So they ordered raised shoes on one (the shorter) leg. Of course VA was booked up, so they sent me to a private clinic where I was fitted with shoes to correct the leg length discrepency.

I finally get a VA orthopedic doc appointment. He says the physical therapist is crazy, and I dont have a leg length discrepency, because the only way to find that out is an xray of both legs at once, while standing behind a tape measure.

I said, Ok, lets have the xray. He responded, "VA does not do those", but ordered a different xray to check for fractures.

The x ray technician told me she does "leg length" discrepency x rays frequently, and showed me the tape measure on the wall where legs are checked for length discrepencies.

After all this (and other) senarios, I have lost confidence in my local VAMC. Also, I am pretty sure it was my hosptial where about a dozen Vets were infected through improperly cleaned coloscopy equipment.

[Notorious Kelly]

Very typical of my military experience to get a different answer from every person you ask (I used to use that to my favor ).

I'll be curious to hear if there's an official answer.

[TexasMarine]

I think that all, if not most, "military" hospitals, are now configured to deal with "war medicine", and they outsource any non-war injuries or illnesses to local hospitals (not the VA btw), if the "issue" can not be dealt with at a base "clinic" or "sick call".

Additionally, their systems are not "hooked up to" the VA systems for reporting the visit.

In short, I think the answer is no, but there may be exceptions, and I may be totally wrong.