This is government health care: For specialized procedures, the VA often only performs operations at one location across the country. One center in particular has a backlog of over 4 months and is essentially refusing to see new patients (fortunately, this same service is performed across the street at a local hospital). Another patient of mine has been denied a life-saving procedure due to high operative risk (a reasonable assessment in this day and age of surgical mortality ratings). However, the VA bureaucracy refuses to allow an outside referral for a second opinion on the grounds that it has already been decided that the patient is not a candidate for surgery. I was reduced to telling my patient that the VA had failed him, and he should seek outside care.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 17:19:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015