TALKING PAPER

The following items are topics for discussion with Secretary Principi and General Schellhase reference the VA Medical Health Care at the Kerrville VA Hospital.

  1. The HCVC’s support for Mr. Tim Shea is still very strong and enthusiastic.  I believe the applicants were all due in by 9 March 2001 and the selection process was to begin right away.  Can you tell us anything about the status of the new STVHCS director and the new VISN 17 director ?
  1. Congressmen Smith made a public announcement in Kerrville last March that the Kerrville hospital will receive the funding to complete the Adult Day Care Facility and that it would be announced that afternoon or the first thing the next morning.  No announcement has been made to this date.  Was this an error on Congressmen Smith’s part or is this still in the works ?
  1. There is still a serious shortage of nurses.  I understand this problem is VA wide.  My discussion with Dr. Dan Bacon, Chief Medical Officer at Kerrville VA Hospital, he stated he has a hiring freeze in effect.  This being the middle of the fiscal year, why a hiring freeze ?
  1. We are all having difficultly understanding  VISN 17 budget process.  Any time we ask why something is being discontinued or delayed, the answer is always budget.  The current issue is where Veterans are being delayed being fitted for prosthetics due to budget.  Is there any possibility this could be true? 
  1. While the Veteran population (the customers of the VA hospitals) is saying we need more hospital beds. Audie Murphy is closing 22 more beds in the oncology clinic. Kerrville is now down to 20 beds and 5  ICU beds (a former 422 bed hospital).

Is the VA overall plan to continue to close down hospital beds ? 

6.            Kerrville is still in need of the following:

    1. Physical Therapy Clinic – physical therapy is being done, but there is no clinic
    2. Pain Clinic – contracts with U of T  San Antonio is of no benefit to sick Veterans in Kerrville
    3. Audiology Clinic with staff more than once every two weeks (there is a six month back log)
    4. Cardiology Clinic
    5. Ophthalmologist – only having one doctor in Kerrville one day every two weeks has added to the problem in the 6 month backlog
    6. Orthopedic Staff – Kerrville has an aged population.  This staff member is needed
    7. Surgery - Kerrville VA has one of the areas leading surgeons in Dr. Kilgore before he went to the VA Hospital and Dr. King.  Both are now being used to do lumps and bumps type surgery.  This is a real waste of talent and assets.
    8. Urologist – 58 days waiting time is entirely to long to wait for an appointment, especially when the population is aged like it is in the Hill Country, a retirement community.  
  1. Waiting time to get an appointment is still an issue.  The VA has been working to correct this problem for the past 50 years.   Will there ever be a solution or is this just the way it is going to be for our Veterans 
  1. Waiting time to see the doctor after an appointment has been made is still an issue. Will more budget fix this problem.
  1. Use of the Sid Peterson Memorial Hospital Ambulatory Care Clinic by the VA -   The HCVC would like to continue to explore the possibility of some sort of contract with SPMH, where Veterans can be serviced by the ambulatory facility as opposed to going to San Antonio.  In recent discussions I have had with Mr. Pat Murray, hospital administrator of SPMH and Bill Matthews, the SPMH Board president,  they feels this should not be a difficult issue to resolve.  Can you provide guidance as to how the HCVC can assist in making this happen ?
  1. The substance abuse rehab program has in reality been discontinued in Kerrville.  We now have what is being tagged as a walk-in/walk-out program.  It operates only in the morning, if you like it - stay, if not -leave.   It is kind of like an out patient program and according to our members, it is not working. The HCVC has members that are success stories from the old lock down program. We have none from the current program.  Today the abusers just drift from one open clinic to the next and they have no long term plans to stop their abuse.  What can we do to get this turned around ?
  1. We find there are no pictures of the chain of command in the VA Hospitals (Audie Murphy & Kerrville).  Can this be corrected ? 
The HCVC raised the issue of the possibility of having the Kerrville VA Hospital serve as a full-fledged diagnostic facility for the VA system, especially in South Texas.  You indicated your willingness to pursue this issue with further dialog with HCVC.  Can we do this during this meeting ?
       

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