Anyone have the number for Joseph Heller?

[Onyrlef]

A typical call to the Dallas VA Hospital: "Our #1 goal is to handle your call with speed and efficiency. An operator will be with you shortly" ( shortly being relative, as in compared to the Colorado River carving out the Grand Canyon).
37 minutes later the operator answers and asks who do you need to speak with, I say xxxx, he says xxxx doesn't take calls. I say how can I call them if they don't take calls? He says, you can't. He says I will leave them a message and they will call you, if they can't reach you they will leave a call back number.
Were I to design a way for the VA to handle patient load I could have never devised a plan as ingenious as " leave a call back #, but don't accept incoming calls, so we tried but he never called us back".

 

[darsben]

Was this a higher level person at the facility?

 

[Onyrlef]

Was this a higher level person at the facility?

This was the patients advocates office who veterans can’t contact to resolve the issue of veterans not being able to contact hospital clinics. The patients advocates office is only leaving call back #s to their office, a # which does not go to the advocates office, because the veteran’s liaison at my US Rep’s office is conducting an inquiry. Now the advocates office can say we tried but he never returns our calls.

 

[Ex-Calif]

I don't understand. Is the failure to connect an incoming call because the facility does not allow incoming calls or the patient/resident doesn't want to receive incoming calls?

And if the latter is true and you don't get a call back, maybe the patient/resident doesn't want to speak to you?

 

[Ray-IN]

Tenure, isn't it wonderful____.

 

[CharlesinGA]

Something like the movie "Catch 22" ?

EDIT: OK, now I see who Joseph Heller is................. (author of said novel)

Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Force B-25 bombardier, is stationed on the Mediterranean base on Pianosa during World War II. Along with his squadron members, Yossarian is committed to flying dangerous missions, but after watching friends die, he seeks a means of escape.

While most crews are rotated out after 25 missions, his commanding officer, Colonel Cathcart keeps raising the minimum number of missions for this base before anyone can reach it, eventually to an unobtainable 80 missions; a figure resulting from Cathcart's craving for publicity, primarily a mention in the nationally syndicated Saturday Evening Post magazine.

Futilely appealing to Cathcart, Yossarian learns that even a mental breakdown is no release when Doc Daneeka explains the "Catch-22" the Army Air Force employs: An airman would have to be crazy to fly more missions, and if he were crazy, he would be unfit to fly. Yet, if an airman were to refuse to fly more missions, this would indicate that he is sane, which would mean that he would be fit to fly the missions. The airman is thus in an impossible "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

Charles

 

[LarsMac]

I went to a VA med center once, probably about 6 months after my discharge.
The next time was when my aunt and Uncle were both at Walter Reed being treated for Cancer in the 70s. Then much later in the 90s when a Brother-in-Law was at Fitzsimmons.

Those experiences cured me of EVER seeking medical care from the VA. EVER!

 

[Tulecreeper]

I went to a VA med center once, probably about 6 months after my discharge.
The next time was when my aunt and Uncle were both at Walter Reed being treated for Cancer in the 70s. Then much later in the 90s when a Brother-in-Law was at Fitzsimmons.

Those experiences cured me of EVER seeking medical care from the VA. EVER!

I've had back problems since the early 80's when I was in the Navy and got injured while on duty. When I got off Active Duty in 1983 I was told I didn't need to file a VA claim immediately. As long as it was documented in my Navy medical record I could wait until I was 90 years old if necessary, if it started to bother me enough to seek treatment. It is documented, so I never worried.

Then, in about 2010, it had really been bugging me for several years so I filed a claim. It took a few months to get an appointment with a VA doctor. When I got there he had my medical record open to the page that showed where and how I had injured myself, and that I had been put on 6 weeks of limited duty. Long story short, they ended up denying my claim because, "I had not sought treatment often enough to warrant any other diagnosis than it was just age related."

So because I had sucked it up over the years and didn't seek medical treatment for it until I really need it, they got out of having to provide medical care for me. Screw the VA.

 

[Onyrlef]

I've had back problems since the early 80's when I was in the Navy and got injured while on duty. When I got off Active Duty in 1983 I was told I didn't need to file a VA claim immediately. As long as it was documented in my Navy medical record I could wait until I was 90 years old if necessary, if it started to bother me enough to seek treatment. It is documented, so I never worried.

Then, in about 2010, it had really been bugging me for several years so I filed a claim. It took a few months to get an appointment with a VA doctor. When I got there he had my medical record open to the page that showed where and how I had injured myself, and that I had been put on 6 weeks of limited duty. Long story short, they ended up denying my claim because, "I had not sought treatment often enough to warrant any other diagnosis than it was just age related."

So because I had sucked it up over the years and didn't seek medical treatment for it until I really need it, they got out of having to provide medical care for me. Screw the VA.

The VA is like the Social Security Administration. They’re under orders to initially deny all claims. When I originally got involved with my son’s case the person submitting the claim told me it would automatically be rejected. Most people will like you just go away and that’s the plan.

 

[Chef Duane]

The only thing I've used the VA for is a home loan. When I sell and move I'll use it again. It really was beneficial. Other than that, I've never used the VA for anything. But I do get 10% off at some places for being a Vet.

USCG '77-'83
USCGC Pt. Evans (decommissioned)
MSO LA/LB Harbor

Mostly did HazMat boardings and Drug Interdiction Ops in the 11th District. That and cruising LA/LB Harbors for 'seen and be seen' ops. Semper Paratus.

 

[Tulecreeper]

The VA is like the Social Security Administration. They’re under orders to initially deny all claims. When I originally got involved with my son’s case the person submitting the claim told me it would automatically be rejected. Most people will like you just go away and that’s the plan.

I appealed and it was put in a 'pending' status. Then they denied it again. Then it went back to pending, then they denied it again...ad nauseam over 5 years. All without me doing anything. Don't know where it is now, and I don't care. I have Medicare, a Medicare supplement plan, and Tricare for Life now, all of which I pay nothing for so the VA can kiss my behind.