Richard L. Roudebush - Prosthetic

[kevin4998]

I was recently in the prosthetic department at Roudebush. I was treated rudely and when I attempted to leave the person stood in the door way to prevent me from leaving. I had to ask him three times politely (please move) to move. At the third request he finally moved out of the door frame.

I went to the advocates office to explain what happened. I do have a thick shoulder, and his ruddiness I could brush off. But, him standing in the door frame and blocking me from leaving I felt needed to be addressed. As, I do have a thick skin... many would of probably lost it at his attempt to intimidate and the blocking of the door.

After a few weeks I sent a message to the advocate again to see what she had found out. My complaint about my treatment was of concern, but more importantly how they addressed this issue with this person and his behavioral and what was going to be done, or had been done.

A week later the advocate sent me a message and just addressed my issue with why the confrontation occurred in the first place, and not nothing about the employee.

1) Anybody else having problems with Roudebush and its employees in Prosthetics?

2) Is it typical for the VA advocates to NOT inform patients of the consequences of its employees and their bad judgment's when a complaint is filed for any certain employee?

I believe they are just sweeping this under the carpet (as it appears with most complaints). At, what point can you go beyond the advocates to address a certain employee if this is his/her typical behavior? And, if it is possible to go beyond the local advocates, who would you go too?

Thanks

Kevin

Edited August 10, 2015 by kevin4998

[kevin4998]

As a side note, in the old forums if I remember correctly their was thread for the various Medical facilities that one could post about issues or non-issues about the particular facilities. Is it possible to re-established this thread of the various Medical facilities so we can talk about those facilities? Less of course names, but just departments. I wouldn't want Hadit to be held accountable for slander on any particular individual.

Edited August 10, 2015 by kevin4998

[iceturkee]

both times i have needed to use the advocate, i have received positive results.

[Pete53]

Sometimes the advocates help and sometimes not so much. You should get a copy of your records and see what was written up by the prosthetics employee. I bet you will be surprised.

[Berta]

A PT advocate helped me considerably, when a vet friend of mine had some problems at the local VAMC.

He is a very difficult vet to deal with, PTSD and 1151 100%, and gave the Pt advocate permission to talk to me...knowing he gets confused easily and also has quite a bad temper.

The PT advocate not only went right to the doctor who caused the last problem but called both me and the veteran to tell us it had been resolved....within a few hours.

However in other problems I had with this same VA , attempting to get my husband the proper care he deserved, I had to go to the VAMC director as well as call my Congressman.

I still recall 2 VA cops showed up at the director's office for one meeting I had...

then again I dont blame them for calling the cops because I was very angry.

My Congressman resolved some other issues there amd all I had to do at one point, was to tell my husband's doctor I was going to the Hosp lobby to call him up. The doc sure didnt want me to do that. Within about 10-15 minutes later (I didnt have to make that call) they fixed the "broken" CT scan (which wasnt broke at all )and his diagnosis of labyrithitus changed to stroke, when a Neutro at a different VA reviewed the Ct scan results with me by phone from the nurses station and they moved him by ambulance to another VAMC.

The 'doctor' he had went into his room and told him he was being transferred to Syracuse for Brain Surgery.

I immediately corrected that as the CT had revealed no indication of any need for brain surgery at all.

This VA (Bath NY VAMC) has since become very user friendly, has good management , and I dont think they have had any more 1151 or FTCA issues for many years. They moved all the doctors out who malpracticed on my husband.

[GuaymasJim]

I am not an attorney; and this is not legal advice!

Your post didn’t specifically state if the person blocking the doorway was a VA employee or not, or if he was blocking the doorway specifically to prevent YOU personally from leaving as opposed to just being a lazy butthead blocking a doorway. Another important point is whether or not he explained why he was blocking your exit—if he did, he is actually acknowledging his actions—not a real smart thing for him to do. Were any mental health (MH) issues involved? Did he make you fear for your personal safety? Did he make any physical contact what so ever with you while he was preventing you from leaving? I don’t want answers to those questions, but if your answer to any of them is” Yes,” particularly MH issues, it would significantly alter the dynamics of the event and therefore change your options. A gender difference (sexual assault/discrimination) can also make a difference in some circumstances.

Believe it or not but according to my sources, if he was blocking YOU personally from leaving without legal cause and/or authority, it could/would constitute a criminal act—not very different from unlawful imprisonment or even kidnapping. I will leave it to you to investigate the possible criminal nature of his actions based on facts that only you know. In answer to your last question—everybody has a boss; so you can go as far up the “chain of command” as you want.

As I have written on numerous other occasions, I once (1981) assaulted a VA doctor. I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT NO ONE DO THIS! The VA police were called to the scene; however I cannot remember if they were armed or not. If it had not been for my father’s heavy political connections, no witnesses, my pending criminal complaint against the VA for altering official VA medical records (a felony), an aggressive DAV rep, and the particular circumstances of the event, I have no doubt that I would have been charged and probably convicted. I suffered no adverse consequences for my actions and was never “flagged” as far as I know; but don’t count on that today! My possession of both the original and the illegally altered medical records was a major factor in not having charges brought against me—sort of like offsetting penalties in a football game. I spent the night on the local DAV reps’ couch. My medical care (including me in an ambulance) and my C-file were transferred (the following day) to another VAMC/RO 100 miles away which was fine with me. Since, at the time, we were not allowed to see either our medical records or our C-Files, I don’t have copies of the incident report from the VA’s side; and they have now mysteriously vanished.

Fast forward to 2000. I was being “housed” at the VAMC while I was being treated at a private facility at VA expense for severely burned arm. There was a little patio garden adjacent to the rooms and hospice center where veterans congregated to smoke, BS, and tell sea stories. At about 8:00pm, a male nurse came out to that area (20 feet from nurses’ station) and shouted my name. I went over to him only to be loudly read the riot act with statements like: “Your father called. This makes the third time this week I have had to answer calls from your damned father. I have told that dumb shit twice not to call here anymore. Is he deaf (he was)? It isn’t my job to act as your secretary.” As you can imagine, the tension/anger level went from 0-100 in about 2 seconds.

As calmly as I could, I instructed the nurse that: (1) Answering the phone was certainly part of his job and if he didn’t like doing it, he should seek work somewhere else; (2) He had neither a legitimate reason nor ANY authority what so ever to address me in such an impolite, disrespectful and inappropriate tone; (3) There were going to be repercussions for his actions; and (4) if he continued to provoke me by insulting my father (and my hero), those repercussions would happen sooner rather than later.

At that point, he squared off on me (assault: Intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. No intent to cause physical injury needs to exist, and no physical injury needs to result.); and I reciprocated as much as a one armed man can (medical condition is an aggravating factor). ). I actually thought I was just about to be nailed. So, I added that he had just committed assault in front of about 20 unimpeachable witnesses--so his best option was to turn around and leave. Instead of leaving, he moved even closer to me crouched in an attack position (my being an injured and disabled victim makes it aggravated assault) I took a step backwards warned him that if he even touched me, I would have him charged with aggravated assault and battery. Unbeknownst to me, all of the other veterans, including those with wheelchairs and crutches as well as terminal veterans in hospice and their visitors had all lined up behind me with the stated intent (“If you attack him, you’re going to have to fight all of us! So get the f*** out of here!”) to escalate the incident from words to violence.

The guy left immediately. When he was gone, I got a pen and some paper and got everyone’s name and telephone number. I was in the Patient Advocate’s office the minute she arrived the next morning. I explained what had happened. She became noticeably unset with a red face, stuttering, and slamming her hand on her desk and told me that no patient in a VA hospital should ever fear for their safety. She would investigate the incident. I told her that I had to go to the other facility for treatment right away and that I would check back with her when I returned.

That evening both the Patient’s Advocate AND the head of the VA Police came to the patio and strenuously apologized to me and the others present for what had happened. We were informed that the individual was not a veteran, and “didn’t understand our culture.” Also, the VA employee’s aggressive interactions with patients had been noted before; and he had “voluntarily” quit his job that same morning. The VA Police chief explained “assault,” “aggravated assault,” and “assault and battery” to us and gave us sort of a 911 number for inside the VA hospital advising us to immediately report any inappropriate—especially violent—behavior by VA employees OR veterans. Privately, I was asked if I wanted to file charges. I didn’t.

To wrap this up, do what you think the situation calls for! Go talk to the Chief of Prosthetics, the VA Police, the VAMC Director, the VAOIG, the Joint Commission, your elected reps, the press and/or the White House (I’m serious!). If you are going to make an official complaint, line up your witnesses!

Mistreat me once-shame on you; mistreat me twice-shame on me!