That surprised you, didn't it?
I'm all about slamming the VA on paperwork and the time it takes them to process claims and adjudicate appeals - that said, I've actually been pretty supportive of them when it comes to my actual contact with the health care delivery side, as is Bloodspite.
Recent news accounts about the shameful conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — a hospital unaffiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs — might lead you to believe that VA hospitals are a national embarrassment. That may have been true at one time. But VA hospitals have undergone a remarkable turnaround in the last decade and, on average, earn higher marks for patient safety and quality of care than most other hospitals in the United States.For example, the VA system is well ahead of most hospitals in protecting patients from medication errors. The VA has adopted a system in which a nurse scans a barcode printed on the patient's bracelet, indicating the name and dose of each medication the patient should be getting. The nurse then scans the pre-packaged medication to make sure it's a match.
That comes from a LA Times Op-Ed by Betsy McCaughey
I'll reiterate - my *personal* experience with direct VA health care has been positive. My father's was so bad 30 years ago that he *still* won't use them... but I, like Bloodspite, have been done right thus far.
The article highlights something else that gets me in the discussion of DoD vice VA health care systems:
Recent news accounts about the shameful conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — a hospital unaffiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs
So many of the chattering class are unable to keep the distinction clear - and conflate the two, which isn't useful, aside from being unfair to the VA. I alluded to that in this rant here, The Curious Case of Specialist Town.
