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Youngstown VA clinic offers quality care, but more space is needed, vets say
YOUNGSTOWN
The consensus is that the Youngstown Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic provides quality health care.
But, because the facility is too small for the population served, getting an appointment with a medical specialist or for mental-health services can sometimes take a month or more, said several veterans who use the clinic.
The problem, called “wait time,” is not unique to the Youngstown facility, however.
The VA began auditing and reporting wait times last spring after a scandal over attempts at many of its facilities to cover up delays by manipulating the medical network’s scheduling system, according to The Associated Press.
One initiative is the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, signed by President Barack Obama in August 2014, which made $16.3 billion available to reduce wait times.
Part of the act is the VA’s new Choice Program, intended to ease wait times by giving vets the option of getting care outside the VA system, which requires a referral from the VA.
However, through February 2015, just 27,000 patients had made appointments for private-sector care through the Choice Program. The VA system averages about 4.7 million appointments per month.
Veterans Affairs officials have cited modest improvements in the campaign to reduce wait times, but they also have said that change won’t happen overnight.
The problem is not uniform across the VA, however.
There are many facilities with long delays and others that seem to “sail through,” according to an AP analysis.
Part of the overall problem is the huge growth in use of the VA system.
Total enrollees grew from 6.8 million in 2002 to 8.9 million in 2013; and during that same period, outpatient visits increased from 46.5 million to 86.4 million annually; patient spending went from $19.9 billion to $44.8 billion; and the number of patients served annually grew from 4.5 million to 6 million.
Some veterans who use the Youngstown VA Outpatient Clinic on Belmont Avenue say the facility is not physically adequate.
More doctors are needed, but there is no place to put them, said a disabled Vietnam War veteran from Youngstown, who asked that his name not be used.
“The wait to see a medical doctor is three to six months [for nonemergency issues], and it takes even longer to get a mental-health appointment. But, if I go to Cleveland [The Louis Stokes VA Medical Center], it’s good,” he said.
The Cleveland VA Medical Center is committed to providing the highest-quality, timely care to veterans in Northeast Ohio, said Ashley Trimble, public-affairs officer there.
“In an effort to ensure our veterans are receiving the care they need when they need it, we have extended clinic hours for primary care and certain specialty-care clinics at Wade Park and the Youngstown Outpatient Clinic. We also utilize Telemedicine services when appropriate to help meet demand,” Trimble said.
Many more clinics with a higher percentage of people having to wait than hospitals could be attributed in part to delivering different types of care. Hospitals may have more-urgent issues that would need quick attention, while clinics deal more with chronic nonemergency illnesses, according to the AP.
Carl Schneider, Youngs-town VA facility director, agreed that a major part of its wait-time problem is that the number of patients has outgrown the facility.
Schneider said there are plans to expand the Youngstown VA Clinic and for getting additional parking space.
“We are very busy and doing our best to figure things out with the resources we have. We have great doctors and support staff who go above and beyond to take care of our veterans,” he said.
Because more veterans are seeking medical care from the VA, the Youngstown clinic needs more space to accommodate more doctors and patients, said Susan Skrzynski, executive director and service officer for the Mahoning County Veterans Service Commission.
“If there are long waits, it would seem a bigger clinic and more personnel would help alleviate the problem. From what I hear from veterans, the Youngstown VA has basically run of space,” she said.
Some veterans are using the Choice card to get private health care because of the long waits at VA facilities.
It would seem to be a benefit if the wait time is more than 30 days or the VA facility needed is more than 40 miles away. It looks like it would be good for more rural areas, but around here, Skrzynski said she doesn’t know if it is beneficial.
Other patients at the Youngstown clinic weighed in on the appointment wait-time issue.
Chuck Best of Boardman, who served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946 in World War II, said he doesn’t have a problem with appointment wait times.
“The only complaint I have is the phone system. It takes forever to get a call through,” Best said.
Thad Cwynar of Vienna, a Marine Corps helicopter door gunner in Vietnam, said he and his wife, Wilma, have received good care through the VA.
Cwynar, who has been coming to the Youngstown clinic since 2003, said he has had to wait a month or two for an appointment with a specialist, but considers that about the same as it would be for a civilian doctor.
From a different perspective, Richard Johnson of Youngstown, who drives for Provide A Ride, which offers medical transport for veterans in Warren and Youngstown, gleaned from his passengers that the wait times are getting better.