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MIDWEST VA OFFICIAL TAKES HEAT FROM LOCAL
VETERANS -- Robert Morrel was challenged on his
leadership style and on some data he presented.
Story here...
http://www.courierpress.com/news/
2007/jan/05/va-official-faces-heat-from-locals/
Story below:
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VA official faces heat from locals
By BYRON ROHRIG
Courier & Press staff writer 464-7426 or
rohrigb@courierpress.com
A physician formerly with the Evansville Veterans Affairs Outpatient
Clinic joined about 100 people raising questions about its
administration Thursday night with the chief administrator himself.
Robert Morrel, director of a seven-facility veterans health network with
headquarters at the Marion, Ill., Veterans Hospital, was challenged on
his leadership style and on some data he presented at a Vanderburgh
County Veterans Council gathering at the Coliseum.
Local veterans have for nearly two years leveled complaints at how
health for veterans is operated. They have persistently criticized too
few physicians caring for too many patients, dismantling of emergency
care at Evansville, an overcrowded Walnut Centre facility and poor staff
morale.
Dr. Stephen E. Braun, who left the Evansville veterans clinic about a
year ago, agreed with Morrel's evaluation that Evansville's medical
staff is hard-working and committed.
But alluding to an administration-sponsored survey last year of the
local VA clinic's employees, Braun asked Morrel: "Can you explain why
the staff has given you such a (high) level of disapproval?"
Braun suggested to Morrel the reason was "problems in your own
leadership."
The survey completed in October gave low marks in job satisfaction,
management quality and institutional "culture."
Morrel responded that officials of
the Veterans Affairs entity that conducted the survey - the National
Center for Organization Development - have "been back at least twice"
since the survey was completed "to resolve the concerns."
Problems cited in the survey, Morrel added, "were localized in two areas
of staff." He didn't identify the areas.
When Morrel asserted he had achieved a "40 percent increase in staff" as
one response to overloaded physicians and other staff, Braun said
flatly: "That number cannot be substantiated."
In a letter to the Courier & Press after the newspaper reported in late
November the survey findings, Morrel claimed an addition of 23 staff at
Evansville since 2001, "an increase of approximately 30 percent."
Before Morrel began a question-and-answer session, Evansville VA chief
physician Dr. Brian Yee promised "better times ahead." He acknowledged
overcrowding, but said the facility was making headway on recruiting
more physicians and reducing their caseloads.
After posting as recently as a year ago patient caseloads of 1,800 per
month per physician - compared to a national VA average of 1,200 - the
Evansville clinic had reduced the monthly average to 1,600 for full-time
physicians, Yee said.
Just Thursday, he added, staff physicians had "productive dialogue" on
how to reduce that number to between 1,300 and 1,400.
He claimed progress in mental health care, too, and promised more to
come in what he described as a high-demand area. "It's what more than a
third of veterans look to the VA to provide," he said.
A number of speakers during the Q-and-A session registered personal
complaints about care received from veterans facilities and staff.
Kenneth Vondrasek, 46, a Navy veteran from Henderson, Ky., described
himself as "pretty much a shut-in" and reliant on a volunteer-staffed
van shuttle to get to the Evansville clinics.
Vondrasek said he had been rushed through a clinic visit because of a
complaining van driver impatient to leave. Becca Shinnemann, a
spokeswoman for the Marion VA administration, told Vondrasek his
complaint had already been received and dealt with.
"I would like to be a productive and tax-paying citizen of this country
once again," Vondrasek said. But he complained the VA refused to provide
dental care, and the condition of his teeth have been an obstacle to
getting on with his life. "I'm ashamed," he said. "Our people do
humanitarian work all over the world...," he exclaimed. "Why aren't we
doing it here? Especially for the veterans?"
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Larry Scott
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