Printer Friendly Page

SECRETARY NICHOLSON PUTS POSITIVE SPIN ON VISIT TO

BUFFALO VA -- Media, told of complaints by veterans, was

not allowed to cover Nicholson meeting with patients.

 

 

Spin and control.  That's what it's all about with VA Secretary Jim Nicholson when he hits the road.

Nicholson met with Buffalo VA patients, but the media could not attend these sessions.

Then, Nicholson met with the press and painted a rosy picture, as he usually does.

For more about VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/
sessearch.php?q=jim+nic
holson&op=ph

Story here... http://www.buffalonews.
com/cityregion/story/163321.html

Story below:

-------------------------

Patient care for veterans here receives high grades

Bailey Avenue facility passes surprise review

By Lou Michel
NEWS STAFF REPORTER

VA Secretary Jim Nicholson addresses reporters Friday during his visit to Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The Buffalo hospital, he said, passed a surprise review within the last two weeks.

Concerned about overall patient care for veterans, U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson visited Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Buffalo on Friday for some firsthand impressions.

Patients in the sprawling complex on Bailey Avenue, Nicholson said, provided him glowing reviews of the medical services and staff at the facility.

“Their eyes light up,” the secretary said, recalling how patients positively responded to his questions about their care during a tour that the media was not allowed to cover.

At a brief question-and-answer session afterward, Nicholson was told that there have been complaints about the cleanliness of the hospital and delays in treatment.

If the complaints are accurate, he responded, they are “very regrettable.” He pointed out that veterans health care facilities undergo rigorous oversight to obtain accreditation.

The Buffalo hospital, he said, passed a surprise review within the last two weeks from members of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations.

“Our goal is to provide world-class health care,” he said, adding that more than one million people a week are treated in U.S. veterans health care facilities.

Helping fuel the big numbers of patients is an influx of military personnel returning from action in Iraq and Afghanistan. To cope, the secretary said, the system is ramping up to provide additional care, especially in the areas of mental health and brain trauma.

“Our mental-health budget is over $3 billion, and there has been a 15 percent increase in staff,” Nicholson said, explaining that it is a challenge to recruit mental-health workers from a limited pool of job candidates. “We’re giving bonuses, but [workers] don’t grow on trees.”

Twenty percent of the 250,000 troops who have participated in the global war on terror have, he said, exhibited some symptoms of mental illness. It is standard procedure to screen returning troops for post-traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries.

“I’ve embedded a suicide counselor in each of our centers,” Nicholson said.

The attention to suicides comes at a time when more soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking their own lives, based on statistics released last month.

Two weeks ago, Veterans Affairs opened up a national suicide prevention hotline center in Canandaigua, and so far more than 4,500 calls have been received, resulting in more than 100 admissions, with 56 of them “in imminent danger,” the secretary said.

Also, four Level One multiphase trauma units are operating so that severely injured veterans, including those with brain injuries, do not have to be moved from one facility to another.

Local veterans seeking medical care, according to Nicholson, do not have to wait very long. For 99 percent of them, a primary care visit takes place within 30 days.

Individuals seeking other types of health services, he said, also do not have long waits, with most getting care within 30 days as well.

Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, Nicholson said, have an even shorter wait — 24 hours.

lmichel@buffnews.com

-------------------------

Larry Scott  --