V A Health Care ?????

[onrway]

Has anyone had any experiences with the VA health care system on the Big Island? Or does it even exist? I would think there should be plenty of Vets on the island yet information seems scarce.
Thanks

[lavalava]

healthcare sucks on the big island.

[kalakoa]

"Sucks" is an understatement -- some people are eventually forced to leave the island due to lack of healthcare options; for others, getting "healthcare" means many flights back and forth to Oahu.

[David Shaw]

Aloha onrway: Have been using VA exclusively since coming from PAMC and it is a different world. There is only what is known as a CBOC here, a Community- Based Outpatient Clinic. All treatment and specialties are located in Honolulu. If you are what is known as service-connected then VA will pay to ship you over there. Otherwise you're on your own.
And yes, there are a lot of vets using the clinic, the two or three docs resident there are overwhelmed, tired, and disconnected from getting involved with patients (burnout).
My takeaway is to be vigilant, be responsible for managing my health, and use the clinic for baseline vitals every 6 mos to a year.
Best of luck for when 'on our way' changes to 'nowwrhere'

-dwajs

[Kenney]

About 10 years ago the VA was doing a 7 week PTSD program for Pacific Island Vets, mostly Hawaii and Samoa VN Vets. The program worked. The guys would come in in need of all kinds of care and leave with a whole new lease on life. I was fortunate to be able to work with these amazing Vets. Long story short, the powers that be moved the program to Trippler. They said learning to live in Hilo was useless as Hilo isn't " the REAL" world.
We do have the new VA home, which is a beautiful facility, actually the best I've ever seen or worked in. It has lots of light and privacy in the rooms, decent meals, good Therapists, however it was necessary to impoverish oneself in order to qualify for residence unless you had good private insurance. Don't know if that's changed.
All the Vets I know here work hard to get the care they need. Persistence and patience are required .
Welcome, and I'm hoping you get the care you need and deserve.

[james weatherford]

I have also been using the Hilo CBOC for more than a decade.
David's comments below are good value.

The staff are people from the local community, just like the vets are; and the staff seems to be trying to do a good job under not-so-good circumstances.
Sometimes seems like the VA bureaucracy has the problem of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing...

quote:

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Originally posted by David Shaw

... there are a lot of vets using the clinic, the two or three docs resident there are overwhelmed, tired, and disconnected from getting involved with patients (burnout).
My takeaway is to be vigilant, be responsible for managing my health, and use the clinic for baseline vitals every 6 mos to a year.

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[Gus]

I have used the facility here about 2 years. I also have used Maui and Kauai. Both Kauai and Hilo have staff that have lived in the community, and that makes a huge difference. In Maui, every 6 months I had a new doc. Here, I have health care that I manage myself. I go to the local VA doc, ask to see an Ophthalmologist, ENT, whatever, and it is done. If you have a serious emergency, it's Hilo Med Center, more serious and you're off to Tripler. Last Thursday I chose to have my deviated septum fixed and was sent to the local ENT. All went well, until later that evening when I had a stroke. (Now, for the rest of my life, I have to listen to my wife saying "You idiot! I told you not to do elective surgery at your age!") Anyway, off to ICU at Hilo Med, great care there, and immediate followup this morning from the CBOC for further doctors appointments and most likely a trip to Oahu. I know people have problems with every medical facility, but I was glad I lived in Hilo Thursday night.