Valerie Hinton sat in the fourth-row aisle seat in a crowded room at Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center, listening as veterans voiced concerns about their health care.
When it was her turn to do the same, Hinton grabbed the microphone, stated her name and background, and shared her story with the leadership of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System at a public meeting Tuesday morning.
Hinton, a 50-year-old Navy veteran, said a "botched" hysterectomy at a VA hospital sent her to UAMS with her life at risk two days after the surgery.
"I had to go to private doctors. I have bills," Hinton said. "It's a result of me coming to the VA and not getting the treatment I need. Who's going to pay those bills?"
About 100 people, most of them veterans and their families, attended the meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald, appointed in July, ordered each VA region in the country to hold such events by the end of September in an effort to restore the public's trust after recent scandals, including the manipulation of records at some facilities to conceal how long veterans waited for care.
At times during the two-hour meeting, Michael Winn, director of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, had to settle the crowd as people stood and yelled complaints all at once.
"We were looking for direct feedback from veterans, and we got it," said Miles Brown, spokesman for the health care system. "We can't fix it if we don't know what the issues are. That's what it's all about, getting that feedback. And we got lots of it."
Hinton's was one of dozens of complaints. Veterans talked of staff members looking at Facebook and shopping on their computers, refusing care, cursing at patients and "passing the buck" when asked a question.
"I propose accountability measures to take care of underperformers," said Cheri Arnold, who served as an Air Force medical technician during Desert Storm. "People who say, 'It's not my job,' when patients need help."
Arnold, now in a wheelchair, also asked for more handicapped parking and improved accessibility in VA facilities.
The most repeated complaint Tuesday was long waits -- sometimes months -- to receive care.
Noting that pattern early in the meeting, Winn asked how many veterans present had problems seeing their primary physicians in a timely manner. About 30 people raised their hands.
"OK, that's a problem that we need to figure out," Winn said. "That's important for us to understand."
Since revelations earlier this year about secret waiting lists at the Phoenix VA system, the central Arkansas system has worked to improve veterans' access to care, Winn said. These efforts included sending all staff members to a retreat focusing on patient care, adding three community-based outpatient clinics, hiring two advanced practice nurses, and putting more money into the neurosurgery, orthopedic and ophthalmology departments.
Winn also is looking to hire two more advanced practice nurses or doctors to help when community-based outpatient clinics are shorthanded.
Because of a $16.3 billion overhaul of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs signed into law earlier this month, more hires will be made in the near future.
Winn said Tuesday that $10 billion of the allotted funds will be set aside to expand private care for veterans. With a "veterans choice card," patients may receive care from doctors outside the VA, and the department will pick up the bill. Another $5 billion will be given to facilities nationwide to hire more doctors and nurses. Winn said any money received by the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System will be used to increase the clinical staff.
Brown said Winn and other leaders would take the criticisms and suggestions from Tuesday's meeting and work on other systemwide improvements. When the meeting concluded, representatives from various VA divisions lined the back of the room to help veterans with their individual problems.
"I heard some things today that are very, very disappointing to me," Winn said. "We will address these issues."
Mike Ross, a retired Army colonel, said he was confident that the VA would follow through on some of the problems veterans said they face.
"They're not clairvoyant," Ross said. "Do they have problems? Yes. But give them an opportunity to fix it. No one here intentionally looks to hurt veterans. Some people get complacent in their jobs and they need to be reminded what they're doing and who they're serving."
Others, such as Air Force veteran Tony Davila, thought the meeting was merely a method for the VA to "cover their asses."
"Nothing ever happens after these meetings," Davila said. "They invite people and the media out to make it seem like they're doing something."
Hinton, on the other hand, left the hospital happy, with her problem on its way to being solved.
"I'm going to get my bills paid," she said.
The second part of the meeting will be held today in the recreation room of Building 170 at Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center. The Little Rock Regional Office of the Department of Veterans Affairs will host today's meeting, which will focus on financial benefits for veterans.
Metro on 08/20/2014