IG: Troubled Cerner Electronic Health Record Rollout Poses ‘Risks To Patient Safety,’ Outages Impact Care
The Cerner electronic health record rollout went down last Wednesday for three hours affecting 95,000 users. Adverse events linked to the outage have not been confirmed.
This outage is the second reported since the previous outage March 3 that nearly halted health care and treatment services at the agency’s new EHR test site in Spokane, WA.
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The outage was reportedly traced back to three Oracle databases that went down impacting EHR systems across the Defense Department and VA.
Oracle agreed to purchase Cerner in December 2021 for $28 billion shortly after VA affirmed the agency would continue ahead with its rollout of the new EHR at other locations that same month.
After the December purchase deal was struck:
“[B]oth companies said the transaction would improve the availability of technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning to federal agencies, and that the goal would be to focus on delivering zero unplanned downtime for Cerner systems running on Oracle’s Gen2 cloud.”
There has since been at least two outages within VA, one of which was severe.
Last week’s EHR system outage impacted the Defense Department, Coast Guard, and three Veterans Affairs medical centers. The nearly three-hour outage prevented clinicians from updated and accessing medical records starting around 5:00 p.m. ET according to an IT ticket.
The EHR deployed by VA is called Cerner Millennium, while the DOD and Coast Guard system is called Cerner MHS Genesis.
The disruption was traced back to a bug in one Oracle server that took down three of its databases that serve as the underpinning of the systems affected. There is an ongoing investigation into the “root” cause of the bug.
A VA official specifically disclaimed the outage was not due to deployment efforts. In a press conference, Terry Adirim, VA EHRM Integration Office program executive director, did not address how the pending purchase of Cerner by Oracle is impacting deployment if at all.
“Affected clinicians were unable to log into EHRM applications or retrieve EHRM data to legacy applications,” according to an IT ticket detailing the issue obtained by Nextgov. The system failed over to a “read only” backup and was fully restored shortly before 8:00 p.m.
Clinicians were instructed to create paper records during the outage to record medical information that could not be entered into the EHR.
RELATED: VA, DOD Not Sure Who Is In Charge Of Cerner EHR Rollout
The EHR system at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, WA went offline March 3 after an update led to possible data corruption. The outage may have lasted to March 5.
Mann-Grandstaff VA is the test site for the Cerner Millennium system.
An investigation by Spokesman-Review revealed the Cerner system has seen multiple outages since its launch October 2020. The incident March 3 was “unlike previous episodes insofar as all data” in multiple software programs “may be corrupted.”
Robert Fischer, director of the VA Medical Center, told staff, “Assume all electronic patient data is corrupted/inaccurate.” Fisher told clinicians they should “provide only those healthcare services you are comfortable providing assuming all electronic sources of data are unreliable.”
Veterans were unable to fill prescriptions, even by mail, and clinicians were told to “make every effort to limit” ordering medications, laboratory tests and imaging studies like X-rays.
So much for “zero” unplanned downtime. Thanks Oracle.
Cerner was awarded the $10 billion contract in 2018 to modernize the existing electronic health record system without VA considering other bids. The software was supposed to work effectively with the similar system Cerner developed for the Defense Department.
The Cerner rollout of Millennium has seen repeated delays. It is now estimated to cost $21 billion, and the agency’s full adoption of Millennium has reportedly been hamstrung with multiple delays due to the pandemic and other challenges.
In July 2021, the IG published the results of its audit of the Millennium project that found the agency failed to properly report costs and funding needs associated with the new EHR system. VA apparently was not being transparent with taxpayers about the cost of the system.
RELATED: VA Scraps Rollout Schedule Of ‘Controversial’ EHR Project
EHR Rollout Allegations Audited
In February 2022, the Government Accountability Office found VA had failed to ensure data transferred during the rollout of its new EHR met clinicians’ needs.
VA did not properly monitor the accessibility, accuracy and appropriateness of clinical information as it was transferred in segments from one system to another.
Other problems included:
- VA identified errors in allergy, medication, and immunization data, which may pose risks for patient safety.
- VA started making reports from the new system available without consulting all users, so VA can’t be sure the reports meet their needs.
In March 2022, the IG published the results of its audits into the success and challenges faced by the Cerner Millennium rollout from October 2020 to date. Three different reports addressed care coordination, ticketing, and medication management.
The findings can be summed up, “The OIG is concerned that deployment of the new
EHR without resolution of the deficiencies presents risks to patient safety.” IG should be outraged, not concerned, about the avoidance of common sense when rolling out a system not ready for prime time, as will be discussed below.
Examples of substantiated allegations include allegations suggesting veterans’ lives are knowingly being placed at risk in favor of moving forward with a buggy and problem riddled rollout of a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time EHR system.
These are the worst offenders in my view that were substantiated and remain unresolved by the date of release of the IG report (March 17, 2022):
- Cerner service desk support staff did not communicate ticket status to end users.
- Cerner service desk support staff closed tickets prior to resolution.
- Medication lists were not accurately imported into the new EHR.
- The new EHR was not configured to support future clinic orders and automatically discontinued them. Providers were not notified of the discontinuance.
- The way patient record flags displayed or failed to display in parts of the new EHR raised safety concerns.
- Facility data reported to the national high-risk dashboard for patients with active High Risk for Suicide patient record flags had been inconsistent since the facility transitioned to the new EHR.
- Deficiencies in the data migration process caused incorrect names, genders, and contact information in the new EHR for some patients.
- New EHR issues caused delays in scheduling primary care appointments.
- Referrals were being lost or not addressed because of difficulties in the referral management processes in the new EHR.
- Some laboratory orders were “disappearing” and never reached the facility laboratory.
- Laboratory orders were “disappearing” from the providers’ view at times, affecting coordination of care, as providers were unable to tell what had been ordered and if there was duplication in orders from other providers.
- Veterans were unable to access the patient portal and use secure messaging to contact their care teams in the new EHR.
As an attorney who has worked on medical malpractice cases, I can tell you the above list of glitches, bugs, and missing information puts lives at risk.
But, it does not take a law license to know that “disappearing” lab orders, improperly canceled medication prescriptions, and botched referrals can be the difference between life and death in certain circumstances.
If a veteran is injured as a result of these errors, the person may consider speaking with legal counsel to investigate.
The IG report into Cerner ticketing practices is worth reviewing.
It makes one wonder if Cerner has the same commitment to veterans as VA espouses. Hopefully, VA did not select a vendor with irreconcilably different values.
If so, let’s hope the duo get a divorce before they have kids.
RELATED: Cerner Picks 24 Companies To Help VA EHR Transition
Oracle To Buy Cerner
Reports that Oracle was considering buying Cerner began circulating in mid December 2021 after VA Secretary Denis McDonough indicated the agency would proceed in its implementation of the Cerner Millennium system.
December 3, 2021, VA announced plans to move forward with the halted Cerner program, and that the agency would solve its problems with more management. It would also start deploying the software to network locations that server VA facilities in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.
The Oracle purchase offer of Cerner was formally announced by both companies December 20, 2021, in an all-cash tender worth $28.3 billion. Cerner will be Oracle’s anchor asset, which Oracle intends to expand using the company’s already global footprint.
As of March 2022, the purchase offer was extended. The companies appear to be waiting for approval of the deal by the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission.
At the center of the dollar signs are tens of millions of health records of soldiers and veterans contained within the Cerner data systems. Who now owns that data or the profit from data derivatives only possible through aggregation of electronic health systems?
Should it be taxpayers who paid to collate the data? How about the veterans whose private health information is in the system?
RELATED: Cerner Population Health Management Data Value
eMarketer reported the purchase was not only the largest ever for Oracle, but “Even though Oracle is a legacy tech company, it has fallen behind tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon when it comes to cloud computing—this deal would change that.”
The Cerner acquisition is apparently aimed to transform healthcare. Oracle will address potential treatment delays “transform[ing] healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better information – enabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better outcomes.”
There is big money behind the purchase, which targets the data within the databases managed by Cerner. Note that Cerner is not called an electronic health record company but a “data analytics firm.”
Oracle – Cerner Acquisition Press Release
According to a Cerner press release about the purchase:
“Working together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to transform healthcare delivery by providing medical professionals with better information—enabling them to make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes,” said Larry Ellison, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, Oracle. “With this acquisition, Oracle’s corporate mission expands to assume the responsibility to provide our overworked medical professionals with a new generation of easier-to-use digital tools that enable access to information via a hands-free voice interface to secure cloud applications. This new generation of medical information systems promises to lower the administrative workload burdening our medical professionals, improve patient privacy and outcomes, and lower overall healthcare costs.”
“We expect this acquisition to be immediately accretive to Oracle’s earnings on a non-GAAP basis in the first full fiscal year after closing—and contribute substantially more to earnings in the second fiscal year and thereafter,” said Safra Catz, Chief Executive Officer, Oracle. “Healthcare is the largest and most important vertical market in the world—$3.8 trillion last year in the United States alone. Oracle’s revenue growth rate has already been increasing this year—Cerner will be a huge additional revenue growth engine for years to come as we expand its business into many more countries throughout the world. That’s exactly the growth strategy we adopted when we bought NetSuite—except the Cerner revenue opportunity is even larger.”
“Cerner has been a leader in helping digitize medical care and now it’s time to realize the real promise of that work with the care delivery tools that get information to the right caregivers at the right time,” said David Feinberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cerner. “Joining Oracle as a dedicated Industry Business Unit provides an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate our work modernizing electronic health records (EHR), improving the caregiver experience, and enabling more connected, high-quality and efficient patient care. We are also very excited that Oracle is committed to maintaining and growing our community presence, including in the Kansas City area.”
“Oracle’s Autonomous Database, low-code development tools, and Voice Digital Assistant user interface enables us to rapidly modernize Cerner’s systems and move them to our Gen2 Cloud,” said Mike Sicilia, Executive Vice President, Vertical Industries, Oracle. “This can be done very quickly because Cerner’s largest business and most important clinical system already runs on the Oracle Database. No change required there. What will change is the user interface. We will make Cerner’s systems much easier to learn and use by making Oracle’s hands-free Voice Digital Assistant the primary interface to Cerner’s clinical systems. This will allow medical professionals to spend less time typing on computer keyboards and more time caring for patients.”
The final implementation of the sale has seen some delays.
Veterans Affairs Buyers’ Remorse?
The EHR community within VA has seemingly been opposed to the change from the open-source solution used by VA for many decades to the new Cerner solution the agency does not and cannot control.
VA still largely relies on VistA, a system developed in-house and launched in 1978. VistA was considered a nimble system that allowed local customization depending on feedback from clinicians and other stakeholders.
VistA is widely considered the best EHR in the world based on a 2016 Medscape survey of 15,000 physicians. By comparison, the system used by the Defense Department, AHLTA, was considered the worst. The Cerner system is considered the middle of the EHR pack.
VistA is open-source and costs zero to license. Cerner is quite expensive to implement, now an estimated $21 billion.
The concerning sentiment was well encapsulated in a scathing article by Spokesman-Review reporter Orion Donovan-Smith republished in Stars and Stripes December 2021 after VA affirmed its intent to stick with the Cerner platform.
Congress charged DOD and VA to develop a health records system with “full interoperability” between the health systems. This paralleled the timeframe when the Obama administration rolled out the Virtual Life Electronic Record (VLER) for servicemembers.
“The goal there was for DOD and VA to agree upon an electronic health record system that they could both run,” said Roger Baker, who served as VA’s chief information officer from 2009 to 2013. Baker was VA’s point person in the effort.
“Our view at VA was that because of all the complexities of government medical care, the VistA system was the logical place to end up, and DOD’s view was that VistA was absolutely unacceptable,” Baker said. “We wrestled through that for three years, and that’s why the program failed in the end.”
Baker stepped down from the position following numerous Congressional hearings and investigations into challenges VA faced when rolling out many different IT systems.
Baker reportedly served on a Cerner advisory board from 2017 to 2018. (This led up to Secretary David Shulkin’s stalled negotiations to contract with Cerner prior to his now infamous ouster by subordinate agency officials within VA Public Affairs.)
The DOD moved forward with its Cerner solution in February 2017 at Fairchild Air Force Base outside Spokane, WA. Soon after, many of the current challenges facing Mann-Grandstaff were reported at Fairchild.
March 2017, President Donald Trump put his son-in-law Jared Kushner in charge of a then new White House office aimed to implement new business ideas into government starting with VA. Kushner supposedly gave officials 2 weeks to come up with a solution that would allow a smooth transition of service records from the DOD to VA.
Apparently, Kushner did not ask what veterans had done for decades without modern X Box level technology – print out the records and carry or mail them to VA to be digitized. Baker indicated the real problem is DOD relies on paper records that must be printed and then scanned into the VA system.
The solution officials came to was to push VA to adopt the same system implemented by the Pentagon arguing the VistA system was obsolete, anyway.
VA Secretary Shulkin Ouster
Kushner was successful in pushing the agenda of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort trio, a doctor, a lawyer, and chairman of Marvel Entertainment. ProPublica revealed significant deal making within IT sectors to essentially pimp out veteran data to Silicone Valley.
Insiders suggest Shulkin and others came to conclude the Cerner solution was “neither operationally effective nor operationally suitable.” Shulkin was ousted with the help of Trump insiders working within VA who reportedly went as far as to block Shulkin’s phone to prevent him from speaking directly to the press.
Shulkin was undermined when IG investigated his careless and improper use of agency funds for travel and other miscellaneous issues.
His replacement Robert Wilkie ultimately signed the $10 billion contact with Cerner, and the rest is history.
The Meagher Misconception
Enter Ed Meagher. He served as the VA deputy chief information officer and chief technology officer from 2001 to 2006.
Meagher argues the biggest misconception in this mess was that VistA is broken and needed to be replaced.
“That couldn’t be further from the truth,” Meagher said, pointing to a recent VA pilot program that showed VistA can operate faster and at lower cost through cloud computing.
Even though VistA relies on relatively old coding language, and it can be difficult to integrate with modern software, Baker argues the challenges were overblown. It suggests the problems with VistA were simply a red herring used to push the adoption of the Cerner system.
“In order to sell this massive program, VA had to create a rationale,” Baker said. “VistA has its problems, but if you look at what has been sold to Congress, those problems have been trumped up.”
One Big Problem
Unlike Cerner’s solutions, the VistA platform was built to provide veterans with quality and timely access to care. While not perfect, the system was not built to maximize profit or recover losses.
Cerner, on the other hand, built out its platforms to bill insurance companies.
“A lot of the reason that the Cerner record is failing out in Spokane is that, love it or hate it, the VistA system is the highest-rated electronic health record system as far as doctors are concerned,” Baker said. “And if you’re going to replace that system, you’ve got to figure out why do they want it.”
Problems at Fairchild have persisted through September 2021 when unresolved critical incidents that “could result in mission failure” were confirmed by the Government Accountability Office.
So, why do veterans really want a Cerner solution engineered to bill insurance companies?
Political Opposition
While the agency is steadfast in its support of the Cerner solution, some lawmakers are questioning the premise of the change. Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana is charged with oversight of the Cerner rollout within the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, is skeptical.
In a hearing, Rep. Rosendale concluded, “The idea that the VA and DOD need the same company’s software to exchange medical records is, frankly, ridiculous.” In the same hearing, he said, “It’s unacceptable to be risking medical errors while bugs get worked out in a live environment.”
Most American’s likely agree. Can one imagine a Senator allowing a dysfunctional EHR to replace their own existing system by their own highly paid physician?
To solve the problems, VA announced in December it would simply add a new layer of management with a program executive director who is a DOD official.
Has anyone noticed DOD seems to be all over the change forced onto VA while many VA officials, at least those working directly with the Cerner product, oppose the change?
Meagher said McDonough seems to think that “through heroic management and good speechifying we’re going to convince everybody to take an inferior product to be half as productive.”
“I’ve never seen adding new layers of bureaucracy make a program more effective,” Baker said in response to the move.
“What VA is apparently doing is, ‘We can’t let this out, because then Congress is going to realize that we’re not doing very well and they’re going to cut our money, and so the last thing we want to do is admit any kind of a mistake,” Baker said.
Even Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D-Fl) has been critical of the lack of transparency in a hearing last October.
“We’ve had a long string of leaders at the VA tell us that the intention is to finish in 10 years, the intention is to be transparent, the intention is to not affect patient safety, and none of that ever happens.”
Baker is not optimistic of the Cerner move giving it a 10% chance of replacing VistA. If it does, he says it will cost $30 billion and take 15 to 20 years.
Rep. Mike Bost (R-Il) has now urged McDonough and Remy to reconsider. Of course, that was before Oracle purchased Cerner, which introduces another layer of complication to an already complicated move.
“The VA electronic health record modernization effort has become a series of broken promises,” Bost said in a statement. “The serious issues with the new system in Spokane are undeniable. Yet, VA has been unwilling to face the music and make the fundamental changes that are necessary to fix them.”
Fish Or Cut Bait?
Where are you at on the transition? Should we stick it out with Cerner, now Oracle, or should we stick a fork in the transition?
The funds already paid are likely a sunk cost at this point, anyway.
I think the writing is on the wall. Baker is probably accurate in his assessment.
At what point is Cerner in breach of contract if the glitches are not fixed?
What is the extent the American taxpayer is on the hook for negligence claims for veterans injured due to the glitchy EHR?
VA knows the system does not work as advertised that that it puts veteran’s lives at risk when the dysfunction is bad.
Would a civilian hospital system adopt and then rollout a known dysfunctional EHR prior to the bugs being worked out? Would Senators tolerate such a change in their own hospital?
James, the purpose of the federal government is to serve the American people.
What does technology have to do with good health and healthy living? The 5G is harmful.
I see the Senior Management managing their objectives for themselves only. I see this too in most companies.
For example, say a goverment official designs a fitness program for a certain group. Well wouldn’t one think this population should be surveyed or spoken too? The characteristics of the group need to be determined. In honesty, people should not be grouped at all because chronological age is not the same as physical age. I mean too the desired activities and the health statuses surveyed should include the muscular strength, the bone density, the weight, time of day, seasonal or routine, and my list goes on. So the people allocating the money or providing resources should consult the people involved. If not the time, effort, and money are a waste. So who does this program serve? Only the governent official who designed it. The program would not apply to the people to whom it was supposed to serve.
Bottom line too is, “Do people really need the leadership determining what is and what isn’t?”
Government partnering with corporations to develop more technology. What does technology have to do with what the person puts into one’s mouth.
They are just all spending more money to serve themselves.
People have brains and people cannot eat technology.
Corporation and government are a separate entites to themselves. I say some Corporations but not all.
I say some government officials but not all.
Adding more comments.
Benjamin and all, in regards to the outages, why are these happening? Oracle is not the only company experiencing the outages that are contributing to the employees and to the consumers not being able to access information. Benjamin, I have witnessed this happening among several companies. What are the companies doing behind the scenes or internally during the outages? Are they data mining and retrieving the data in the moment for storage on other servers besides the cloud? Are they needing the outage to send the data to other areas of the world? Are the outages intentional? Are they preparing for a world wide outage to restrict access? Are the outages being directed from outside the United States? The bottom line is why are they needing to have an outage? The outages are happening everywhere to different companies of different industries; intentional or unintentional???????? Does anyone have any insight?
In my opinion, I believe we should stick a fork into the transition. Yes, I know Baker is correct. I am basing my comments on having been under this VA bureaucracy since 1996. I have watched and experienced the changes throughout the years. The VA leadership have grown more and more distant from the agency itself and distant from the connection that is absolutely neccessary for any institution and any people to survive. The larger the government the less it values anything about anything. VA employees working within the agency and the veteran patients became more and more disregarded and disrespected as the years moved forward. I do not believe it is right for employees to be fired because they assert their choice. All people have rights. America has always had God at the top. People matter. Veterans matter. The VA being run with purpose to serve matters. Veterans being afforded health and recovery matters. Veterans being afforded opportunites matters. We are not a piece of technology to be kicked around. The information about each and every veteran should be valued and not changed to benefit companies or others for financial gain. People are not pawns and should not be treated like machines. People are human beings who all deserve opportunity of equality. My comments align with small limited goverment and returning the country to it’s founding where meaning, principles, and values are treasured. One day at a time. Do the best that we can is all that we can do.
I do not believe any of the people in leadership care one way or the other. Fixing the bugs just adds to their money flow and still the bugs might not be fixed because the companies and most in government do not want it fixed. Remember many in the top leadership are destroying the country and everything about it. The media and some companies are participating in the ax. Yes the private hospitals would roll out a EHR without bugs being fixed. Would some Senators allow it? Yes.
Didn’t they roll out the vaccines without enough trial evidence? People were used as Guinea pigs. Congress and the Senate do not care. If they truly did many of these plaguing issues would have been fixed at the root causes along time ago. The federal government is so large and so dysfunctional that it destroys everything it has it’s hands on. People injured from the vaccines are not covered by insurance because the vaccines are experimental. So why would they correct this system? They will not bother I guarantee you. Healthcare facilities out here have also delivered death panel care and have tried to deliver death panel care. Look at the nursing homes in New York. Even some of the more credible healthcare systems have participated in trying this but I will not write in here. Patient had to threaten to use attorney. Ultimately with whatever these companies and the government are trying to accomplish by destroying everything, I hope one day they find what they are searching for. I have zero confidence in any leadership and or institutions.
You know, sometimes, Angela, you can be a pretty reasonable person. It gives me hope.
You have set the problem as clearly as it can be, and particularly for the Veteran’s Administration:
“the purpose of the federal government is to serve the American people”.
But of course, that’s the rub. Your idea of serving and mine are so very different. I believe I am entitled to care that is informed by my status as a combat veteran, care I cannot receive from a civilian physician. Instead, I receive care that is not only inferior to that I receive in the civil sector, I have to fight tooth and nail to make the VA Pay for it.
Caring for veterans bearing the physical and psychological burden’s of war *ought* to be the fundamental VA task. Instead, the VA is no more, and no less, than the premier social medicine network in the US. So while you worry about inanities like 5G “causing … harm”, I’m focused on having men and woment who are in actual pain receive honest pain management unburdened by an unethical and immoral co-opting of the Dr.-Patient relationship by DEA and the various licensing boards.
See the difference there?
My 5G statement just had to do with their obsession over technology. Oh I know it does not compare to the other types of issues. I was just making the comparison to this technology.
Steven as for the pain and for some conditions there are ways to deal with that pain if people are informed. Oh I agree with you.
What you are discussing goes back to the curriculum being taught in the medical schools and the push for synthetic medicine for the purpose of profits instead of respecting people’s health.
Steven I agree with you.
They just spin it. Steven they do not care about health and recovery. This is not what they stand for. This agency is about population control. Years ago the focus was more centered to assist veterans in more genuine methods. Back in the day there were more success stories.
When under the direct impact from that system, dealing with the VA was and is a full time job. Steven, I was receiving care from them from 1996 until 2015. I had to just leave. With what has been happening if I had remained in that status nothing would have been done.
Steven it was not until 2016 that I became more able to speak and problem solve on my feet. During 2015, I had an informational interview with UF to inquire about their PhD program in Clinical Psychology with Dr. Duane Dede. One on one face to face located in a small office, I could not hardly process my questions and responses back and forth during the conversation. Steven I have ran into retired nurses who did not agree with the VA treatment. The over medicating is just another profit scheme. Plus the medications if taken for longer than needed can develop other health issues. This is what they want. Steven the whole healthcare industry has become this way. It is very rarely real ethical care is applied whether in or out of the VA. All the physicians have become government controlled which leads to subsidizing and poor quality care. Continued
I am not worried about 5G. I just threw it out there as an example. Steven all the care today has to be oversaw by others outside the system. I know other people who have also had to do this. Regular everyday Americans having to pay outside help because they cannot trust the healthcare employees who are working in the facilities. This is in the civilian sector. One of my best friends from high school who has worked in corporate law all these years had to hire an attorney to sue the healthcare facilities due the inhumane and unethical delivered to the mother resulting in death. This is how corrupt the system has become. My statement applies to all industries though because they are trying to destroy this country. At the start of the virus back in 2020, the E-Commerce fraud became horrendous. Continued
Yes you are entitled to ethical and accountable care.
Steven I am going to expand on your last paragraph specifically. Benjamin allow me to further expand this before you close your blog.
Steven I am going to expand on your last paragraph specifically. Benjamin allow me to further expand this before you close your blog. I am sitting in a line so I may not can finish in the moment is why I mentioned soon.
Steven, the companies and the government can come up with all kinds of ways to deliver healthcare.
But does this truly solve the ethical and accountability issues? In regards to pain management, NIH a couple years ago stumbled upon the D2 receptor in the brain. They were doing the research to develop a medication that did not have addictive qualities. However, what has become of this? Benjamin do you know? The opoids were killing people. Now the fentanyl is even worse but there is even another drug that is more toxic than the fentanyl drug. Many of these drugs are coming in through the open border. The federal government spends billions of dollars on research but do they use it to assist the people? I say very rarely. Occasionally Medicare will engage in and pay for trial treatments. One person that comes up is Bill Cunningham out of Ohio. A physician used a catheter on Bill Cunningham to clear up blocked artery instead of doing open heart surgery. He was back to work in no time.
Getting back to the pain management and even the healthcare industry overall, the physicians and all the medical professionals can only deliver care in which they are licensed under. Some may not even bother and these can be engaging in more criminal conduct. Who knows? This is why people should research reviews. The VA medical types and the private sector physicians are all bandaids in my opinion. They all can only do what they have been given to work with. If a physician does not have access or if there is not availability, there is nothing the VA can prescribe or even the private sector physicians can prescribe while still being under the government. The physicians and all can only deliver what they have on hand. Many of them are deceptive because of this reason. Some can be deceptive while knowing the truth behind a particular treatment or procedure. Many times the pharmaceutical companies will twist the VA into whatever. Here is how the VA types fall into a rut. This happens when they do not ask why, how, and speak up. The VA is so compartmentalized and the group think sabotages successes in my opinion. Medical professionals from the private sector sometimes go into the VA with all good intentions of trying to make a difference. What happens to some is they get sunk due to the group think and the compartmentalization. The group think strips their skills. Yes it does. The compartmentalizing does as well. Bottom line is uniformity does not ever deliver successes. The federal government is a gigantic dinosaur. It runs off of big mainframe computers that were built back in the 50s and 60s. Just like the VA formulary has medications on their formulary dated back in the 70s. Check it out and you will see what I mean. The physical pain and or mental pain some experience could be caused by many reasons. Take physical pain for example: the sources could be how one walks or lack of movement or lack of flexibility or injury. The bone structure needs to stay aligned. Biomechanics…
The alignment comes from the feet. And it is the muscular structure that holds the bones in place too.
So this is how weights are very helpful. When it comes to injury, sometimes surgery may be required.
And here comes the pain medication that this unethical healthcare industry likes to over medicate with. There are ways to handle this. There are wearable icepacks. Low stress level PT therapeutics exercises helps. I am referring to stretching and resistance movements. The stress one puts on the body while gradually building the degree of stress is what heals the body. For example ACL tear that required surgery. Well yes of course surgery is needed to repair and PT to ease the movements back since the repair. Ultimately though a person cannot continue to nanny the body. Wear a brace temporarily while exerting it. This strengthens it. Many of you know this I am sure. Most veterans who served on active duty know all about physical exertion. You ask what if one cannot exert? It is just too painful. Well if one sticks with it the pain will reduce. I mean movement and stretching. The body will heal itself if the body part is still present. Even parts of the brain and the liver regenerates. As for mental pain, the healthcare industry turns to medications. Yes certain medications should be and are used to stabilize the person. What happens is if the near correct med is prescribed the med will buffer the symptoms. This gives the body a chance to start to heal. Instead of experiencing the extreme emotions and or feelings the meds will lower this intensity. Medicine is trial and error. Here is where the whole industry fails. Medication does not solve the problem. Prescribing a med does not change one’s environment. It helps one cope with what ever is happening but it does not solve the problem. What has to happen is compensatory skills have to develop that ultimately can replace the medication. The skills are developed by doing. How does one do this? Building blocks incrementing one at a time. It starts with developing awareness and then taxing the body with mental tasks. Starting with writing on paper and problem solving on paper. Yes of course speaking returns by practicing communicating. There are other skills that were used but these pointed to other types of symptoms. Eventually, the skills became natural as compared to when one was sick when the person had to have medications to make it. Getting back to environment, one’s environment consists of residence, social, types of food, volunteeering, work, school, exercise, and not being stigmatized. My point is any type of condition can happen to anyone. No one person is unique. The problem with this country is it has become to focused on statuses, races, skin color and etc. This should not be. We are all Americans. In dealing with the DEA and the government in relation to the pain medication, the root cause lies with how the medications are manufactured and developed. This points to the molecular makeup of the drugs. I am sure many are familar with the Chemistry periodic table. Well here is what the big phama companies do. They do not care about lives. They care only about profits and revenues. Here is an example and this is one of many. A couple of years ago Pfizer had developed a medication for Osteoporosis and later found out when they were reviewing it that it was helping people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. They were going to do a study to follow up to find out how effective the drug actually was. Well the company determined the study was going to cost them more money than the profits coming in. So here is what they did the company removed a molecule from the molecular composition of the Osteoporosis drug. This changed the drug to a new drug that was of less quality resulting in more side effects and becoming less effective. They took the patent off of the quality med. So when I mention the healthcare industry’s hands being tied this is why. The problem originates at the root. Also many of our manufacturing companies are in China so there you have it. Also, many times the food supply is the source of the medical issues. It all depends. The medical industry can only deliver what they are licensed by. When they changed the Hippocratic Oath, this was the first step to unethical care. This was a bad move. Even vitamins on the market that one believes are healthy may not be healthy. For example; D3 but it has soybean oil and corn oil in the composition. Guess where it is manufactured? China. Do you know what soybean oil and corn oil can contribute to? Pain
This is how they brainwash the people. Plus, look at what President Biden just started back. The Biden adminstration just started the E2 type gas sellings back on the market. If one witnesses brand new cars breaking down, this is why. This happened a few months ago off the east coast of GA with the people traveling to Jacksonville. Brand new cars broke down. They had gotten gas at a Pilot station. I could go on and on. I am reasonable and truthful. Every comment that I have ever made on Ben’s Blog has always been true in relation to me. My comments have always been related to my experience or what I have witnessed or my own knowledge or from credible sources. I do not belong to any politcal party anymore. I am not a Republican or a Democrat. I had enough of most of them including the lobbyists. Veteran community needs to push for the truth. All veterans who are running for the Congress and the Senate need to push for the truth in regards to what happened to the medication NIH was developing without addictive qualities. Counter the status quo. Stand up for good ethics and accountability to be applied in every industry.
I knew that you, James, already knew the information the information that I was expressing. You are correct they don’t care.
If they did, all the plaguing issues would have been resolved long before now.
Benjamin the technology is a luxury not a necessity.
Healthy Food supply, uncontaminated medications
uncontaminated water
uncontaminated air
Math
Physics
Chemistry
Engineering
Needs not luxuries
Waiting for clothes to finish.
At a laundry mat
Since when is anyone in leadership positions concerned about anyone’s safety? Maybe Elon Musk and a few Republicans. This is a slim number. The arrogance displayed by some of these people is uncalled for. Benjamin, I still have not had the time to request the FOIA. The government is always looking for ways to throw people under the bus for no reason. I would truly like some answers of the why of the attacks at me that have happened in VISN 8 over the years. I did not origintate in VISN 8. Yes Department of Veterans Affairs I would like some answers. Recommended for the Medical Enlisted Commissioning progam and 6 months later I am no longer. Do you have an answer VA? It seems government officials know everything. Please explain.
Benjamin, it would take being MD and a JD to be listened to. How is it the VA did it’s best to thwart attempts of moving forward? Benjamin when they were not even paying for it. Benjamin you are a male veteran. Did they block you? no Could it be they value women veterans less? I tried go through regular channels and VA you denied. Why? Although Ben if they had approved they would tried to sabotage the process. This is why there are so few veterans completing the Chapter 31 retraining program in the more recent years. Benjamin they sabotaged it out here. What is the difference? Shall I write the barriers? How can one hold a job if the person is constantly having to straighten out situations outside of one’s job? Benjamin and all here is what would have happened. Start job quit job start job resign job start job resign job just like my college transcript at Santa Fe College in which some of it was happening there in the recent years when I was becoming more able to function. OH which is worse waiting until more issues have been resolved then try to return to the workforce or start job and quit job time after time due to the companies and the neglience coming from the government. Which Ben? Here is what would have happened. Company and government view and say oh this person cannot work. Here comes the permanent govt dependence. However, with all the situations completing anything tell me how? Holding a job how? The bias and the discrimination towards people is just wrong. As a matter of fact my old college degree that was earned prior to the Navy is not reflective of today. My potential is greater than my previous degree. Benjamin one thing about the VA and and the governmemt is they make laws to suit themselves. Participating in Chapter 31 or even holding a full time job would not have been feasible until after 2016 but just look at the situations that have happened after 2016 that have prevented from even being positioned to hold employment. Benjamin their elligiblity criteria is 12 years or 14 years. So look. Back in the day they decided assuming that I was not going to become more able to do much of anything. Who knows? Complete a Calculus while caregiving. I most certainly could not do that in 2015 much less in 2002. So Benjamin the laws need to be changed and the veterans they are holding down in assisted living could be afforded more forward opportunities. A veteran living in a room for years and years who has become more able. Please give me a break VA. How about Independent Living? Benjamin this is what this government does. This could be changed. Nothing I can do about others out of my realm. But I do want answers from the VA. It seems the only way to get anything done is to use a Conservative Congress Representative. There is so much red tape……..
Been reviewing the older articles that you linked into the article. I say truly what a mess. I would hate for them to try to transition the old mainframe computers that were developed back in the 60’s. I have experience on some of those. Most of the government agencies still run on those. The technology has a more proven track record than the current technology. One con in today the companies change everything too quickly. The government is too massive for such quick transitions. If they tried to update the mainframes, I say lord help us all. I am referring to the OPM etc. Everything is so red taped. We speak smaller government but they love this big government where everything is so much harder to deal with. They bring it on themselves. Back to my other comments, I do not know what their deal is. I am not entry level. Updated education and training they blocked it. Age is not a factor. Chronological age is not the same as physical age. They truly do not care. The more disasters they can create the better they like it. I know if anyone is still reading on here you have probably had enough of my comments just like the rest of the happenings that are going on. This government is a disaster.
My statements stated in your blog were just repeated on the air of a radio station.
“Government from top to bottom are a bunch of self seeking liars.”
I said, “The federal government is a disaster.”
Radio host said the same.
Radio host said Florida is a little better than most.
He is correct but some are too self seeking liars in some areas.
Very few are credible.
In regards to me I asked for your assistance or representation a couple years ago and you did not say I cannot assist or goodbye or kiss my ‘’’. You did not even respond and I submitted for a consultation.
I am standing up against the VA but it is developing out here. Nothing can move in that system.
Benjamin I am the one with the truth and I am the one who always has had the truth.
Everything I have spoken is proven. I would just have to present it. People and happenings and documents.
I have my own records that came directly from all the institutions and my encounters.
Others involved.
What the government perceives as being, in reality it is not.
Government undermines the not or they demean the not.
This is contributed to by the disconnection and the false belief system.
In other words, the government treasures status when the non status may can run circles around their status folks. The government has the intent or may say throwing one to the devil but the one delivers over the top while surpassing any previous judgements that had been determined. Government is secular.
God is the authority.
Thy will be done.
Veterans
Some of you probably already do this. I will comment anyway. Learn about the different chemicals and biologicals both man made and naturally grown. When you buy the products pay attention to the labels. Looking for solutions to pain without having to take addictive pain medicine. Some of the elements and fillers manufactured into the products that are sold in grocery stores or pharmacies or restaurants could contribute to health issues. In a earlier post I mentioned the corn oil and soybean oil added in a supposedly D3 vitamin, the soy bean oil and the corn oil can contribute to inflammation which eventually leads to the pain that happens in the body. Vitamin D3 is in all honesty not a vitamin. It is a hormone. Also consider some of the other ingredients in vitamins and in the food supply additives like maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is a white powder made from corn, rice, potato starch, or wheat. Even though it comes from plants, it is processed. Maltodextrins are closely related to corn syrup solids with the one difference being their sugar content. My point is Maltodextrin is high on the glycemic index meaning it could cause spikes in blood sugar. It is used as filler to increase the volume of the product. It also increases the shelve life of products. The Maltodextrin’s GI is higher than table sugar. It is a cheap filler and is manufactured from genetically modified GMO corn. It is not that a person cannot eat it but the amount should be small. I am just writing this to give a couple of examples. Some physicians and or nurses and or nutritionists will not educate people on this because the healthcare industry wants people coming back. This is the deception for the purpose of money.
If all veterans educated themselves at least on the food science, the chemicals, and additives that are manufactured to develop the medications, vitamins, and food supply, many of the VA employees might not any longer have a job. My statement applies to the private sector too. Many of you already know this. Some of these preservatives and additives add to health issues. It depends on one knowing one’s own health status. There are alternatives to many of the more risky products. Alternatives in place of maltodextrin that could be used are molasses, honey, puréed, mashed or slice whole fruits to sweeten the foods. Stevia is another alternative. Palm oil, corn starch and carcinogens and etc are not healthy. Lists and lists of them.
Herbicides pesticides.,,just look at class action lawsuits for the use of that Roundup. See true Organic foods, glyphosate a herbicide is banned in organic farming. What I have written is just the tip. Paying attention to this and eliminating some of these chemicals and find alternatives could reduce some of the pain. Improving this area may help one to become better equipped to deal with the other issues that arose from combat and or other traumas and or other injuries.
This is why I got on board with Medicare as soon as I could and am finally receiving decent care. The only care I get through the VA besides eye-glasses (which I can barely see out of) is through community care for and providers I’ve chosen. I’d rather die than use the VA for medical care.
I thank you for this information. I have been feeling so neglected and pushed aside for several years. When I hear, deny, deny and hope you die; I feel this is directed to me.
I cannot afford Medicare costs. Any suggestions on how they may assist me?
That IS directed towards you! It’s directed towards every single veteran who served in the many militaries of America!
I could not work for the VA unless I was in the position to improve it or fix it. Benjamin back in 2008 and 2010 a VA physician wrote me 2 very positive letters for the Eli Lilly scholarship. I believe the Leadership hated it. Because from that point on I was slammed and harassed and thwarted and shutdown. Benjamin I have NOTHING to say to the VA. They hate success and they demean the veterans. Benjamin they are so disconnected that it is unbelievable.
I am not saying that the VA did not have issues before but when Former President Obama was elected the VA became a disaster from what I witnessed. Benjamin they have no idea. I am entering the workforce now. I don’t need their education and training. They can keep it.
From what I have endured under this agency and from what I have climbed up from, Benjamin I believe my resiliency will extend beyond positive infinity. The amount of duress that I experienced from the VA has been over the top. Their actions were uncalled for. Best.
Let me come back for my last comment. We are free country and basically the only free country except for India. India is a free market country. We are supposed to be. However this is not what has been happening over the years. Freedoms come from God and the Constitution serves as the foundational vessel for freedom. Why would anyone reject having the freedom to choose? What does the federal government truly accomplish from tyranny? Tyranny obsecures the truth. How can people in leadership truly stand for this? Who benefits from this? They believe they do. No they don’t. If they would look in the mirror I am sure deep down they love America. Everyone was born with a conscience. And they too have one.
As for working for the VA, I already have been but not being paid by a salary. I can make a list of the situations that I have had to straighten out and pick up the pieces from from where this agency just went off the rails whether being intentionally or unintentionally. As for the healthcare prior to Former President Obama and the healthcare after President Obama, the numbers show the before and after. Most definitely a sharp contrast. This pertains to the insurance companies and the consumers. This even pertains to the number of people who lost their private sector employment insurance and had to go on Obamacare and or Medicaid. But to go even further Medicaid would not pay for those medications the spouses and the employees were on. Being we are talking about pain medicine, here is another area where the federal government contributed to OPOID addiction and deaths. Bad government laws and bad policies….The medicaid physicians prescribe them like candy. Points again back to how the medications are manufactured and the molecular structure. Homelessness mostly is due to bad policies and bad laws that slammed people out of the mainstream with no way back due to the statuses the people in power cling too. Even the federal government buying cell phones and other items to keep them homeless. Elon Musk speaking about turning Twitter facility into a homeless shelter. I agree. While the people are in the homeless shelter try to stabilize them with the handup. Elon Musk has factories everywhere. Once some are stabilized some may could work for Telsa. Yes this can happen. I am fed up with the downtrodden projection coming from the government that is being displaced onto people who this government threw out of the mainstream for the sake of power and the dollar bill. Many of these people may have had careers before. Also, look at the people in the state hospitals who are locked up while being over medicated. Here again is these shit pain medications and other types that are full of chemicals that are toxic to the body. When the government regardless of state or federal continues to increase the medications instead of streamlining them who in the hell wouldn’t become more disabled to the point of no return. This is evil and intentional. The medical schools today teach the opposite of the truth. And they are top down and not bottom up. Take Vitamin D3 for example again medical schools claim D3 toxicity is more harmful than the D3 deficiency. Well it is not. A D3 deficiency is more likely to cause death. Fauci takes 6000IU a day. So why didn’t he communicate this to the American people? I do not have to write it. All of you know.
There is always going to be one common problem with Veterans VA medical records regardless of any medical records system that is used.
Inaccurate, incomplete, or missing medical information due to human error and the deliberate falsification of Veterans medical records by VA PCP’s who report that they performed required examinations with out doing them and then reporting everything is normal when testing and examination by Portland VA docs or VA community care doctors clearly shows severe problems. The absolute proof of this problem is in my Roseburg VA medical records.
This is a huge problem at the Roseburg VA Medical Center in Roseburg Oregon where these multiple failures have resulted in improper and denied care.
Veterans problems lists and diagnosis are often incomplete or grossly inaccurate.
With Choice and now the Mission Act, Veterans can be sent into the community for care. The Veterans community care medical records are not entered into the VistA system. The VA informed me that Community Care medical records are entered into a different VA medical records system, CPRS (Computerized Patient Records System).
(aka CRAPS). Secure Messaging with some of my Roseburg VA PCPs has shown the problems they have navigating the CRAPS System.
CPRS Records cannot be accessed by the Veteran on Myhealthevet. when I asked about this at a 2019 Roseburg VA town hall, the Veterans Experience officer told me to file a FOIA request or to request them separately from each community care provider.
Each VA medical facility keeps separate VistA medical records for Veterans. The VA in Portland, Oregon, White City, Oregon or Roseburg Oregon are accessible to VA PCPs if they choose to access them but VA PCPs don’t have the time to sift through these records for the finding/diagnosis of other doctors who may have recorded these medical problems in their notes but failed to enter these medical issues into the problems list. My medical records from all VA medical facilities especially Hines VA in Illinois are proof of this problem.
With regards to Veterans VA Radiology Records: Radiology imaging and reports are used to diagnose, treat and sometimes compensate Veterans for their service connected conditions.
The Roseburg VA Radiology Department will not accept Community Care radiology reports and the Veteran is told to submit these to their PCP so they can be entered into the CPRS system. The Radiology Department will scan the images but those images are stored in a separate system called PACS.
Radiology Images and reports that were performed at other VA facilities were not included in my Roseburg Radiology records until I requested them to be back in 2018. Additionally, a note was made in my Roseburg VA Radiology records that the Community Care Radiology Images were available in the PACS System. No mention to look in the CRAPS (CPRS) System for the radiologist reports is noted though.
The Roseburg VA only did this to pacify my inquiry into the problem at that time and has not continued to do this. This is evidenced by my Roseburg VA Radiology Records. When asked if the Roseburg VA was doing this for other Veterans I received No Response from the current Director Kieth Alllen or Senator Merkley’s office and this is evidenced in email dialogues with Merkley’s office and no response from Allen.
The VistA system utilizes MUMPS Programming Language developed in the 1960’s. A family member/Tech contractor who worked on VistA several years ago informed me of this and this programming language is no longer used for new systems.
There is much more I could share but I hope I have provided some useful information here.
Human error at the VA, whether deliberate falsification of medical records or lack of providing available medical information in Veterans medical records will continue to be a problem for Veterans health care regardless of the medical records system used.
The Billions spent on the Cerner System-follow the money.
Thanks Mike. I think we need as much information as we can get at this point. Whatever went on to get the contract through, veterans need to be pro-active to learn more about what the agency is allowing to be done with our health information.
I totally agree with your statements, but how do we produce change?
I would gladly stuff envelops, write letters to Congress, Senate if I thought it would do any good. Thank you for your continued support of Veteran’s. God Bless you.
Benjamin and all,
Adding more layers to bureaucracy most certainly does not deliver a greater degree of accountability or a greater degree of efficency.
Let’s back up. How did the system corrupt the patients’ data? What areas did the outage affect? What are they really up to when they take the system offline? There is more to this than they are revealing.
This list of worst offenders that were substantiated and unresolved were happening years ago before Cerner and Oracle was involved. This was under the Vista system too.
Patient information was entered incorrectly at times. I have had to correct information but that does not meant the information was truly corrected. The government enters what they want to enter. I have had physicians submit consults before and the clinic would turn around and cancel it without providing a reason. As for appointments, VA providers have put appointments in that never happened. Deficiencies in the data migration and or updating of information has always been a problem. I have had veteran friends to turn in dependents’ data and the information never got entered into the veterans chart resulting in the veteran not being paid for dependents. Also, when veterans get divorced the same happens here. Veterans provide the VA with information but the VA failed resulting in errors in payment. Benjamin, it is all about money. Less quailty garners them more money from Congress and generates more profits delivered to Cerner or Oracle.
Yes, I was aware of Oracle developing the autonomous database. So Oracle having problems I percieve them as being intentional. Oracle is presenting as a neglient company; and they are not. Unless they have adopted a new company model. They were the first company to develop the autonmous database.
The quantity quotas come from the Clinton administration. The Clinton adminstration started the outsourcing.
Benjamin they all target the insurance companies. The VA will try to bill the insurance companies and the veteran will have not recieved any care from the private sector.
When it came to me in years forward, it was the delay of care, could not get appointment until 6 months later, missdiagnosed of eye infection, canceled consult, failed dental care, denial of chapter 31 forever begin, denial of transfer of VEAP to montgomery GI Bill, system sabotaged my efforts in updated education and reentry employment, etc.
Above all when I left, many situations happened one after the other of which I had to assist with or straighten out of which the ball had been dropped intentionally or unintentionally towards myself and others around me.
When it was mentioned about telling the providers to document everything on paper, well this is wise.
Is this direction for show or is the direction genuine?
I have tracked everything in the more recent years. It boils down to the technology. The technology invites the corruption. I have corrected behind attorney and companies.
It is true the data is a good as already in the database and as good as when it is entered via human entry. Now how is it they are all concerned about veterans’ lives?
When did this come about? Twenty years plus ago maybe!!!! Yes, the VA truly used to invest in the veterans. I witnessed this all around me.
But now? I find it hard to believe. There is such a decline in culture.
I see profiteering as the biggest downfall of society.
Though, when did the value of lives come back as a priority? Look at the number of deaths from the claimed vaccines. I do not see it.
Veterans need to inquire about everything. Research and research everything. Do not ever take for granted information spoken, Find out for oneself. Locate credible resources.
Benjamin, the companies’ systems going down are happening across the board. The technology is disrupting efficiency everywhere in all industries.
Yes, E-commerce fraud, third party hiring companies during the hiring processes, employees not being able to locate data or information, and continuity not being feasible.
I see the errors as intentional to keep the money flowing.
What all these greed mongers don’t realize is the money will run out, i.e. Venezuela. Subsidizing everything is pathetic too.
Let’s back up to the healthcare industry. I see the most of the healthcare industry as being non care. I see it as just a money machine. Some veterans mentioned care out here under other government agencies. Do not trust them either. I had to correct this too. Most I bet document incorrect information in Americans’ records. Had to correct documentation entered into record that was not accurate at all. Yes this happened out here.
Benjamin and all, I only see technology improving healthcare very little when it comes to the data management systems. The technology is just a small entity of the larger picture.
Here is where the healthcare should be corrected.
The root sources of the food supply, the molecular structure of the medications, the food with being how is it grown, water supply, exercise and movement, using one’s brain, reading books, and staying involved, education, work, being productive, and contributing. It all boils down to one’s environment.
If one reviews the original hippocratic oath, one will see the focus being on natural sources to treat naturally. If one happens to notice the background of many physicans, some will have a degree in Agriculture. I mean the ones who have not been politicized. The more recent hippocratic oath is slanted towards man made synthetic medications. All coming from the Rothchild family. American Medical
Association was created by this group of elites.
I will end with this by giving an example.
We all know Vitamin D3 is important for life. Well wouldn’t one believe the Vitamin D3 should be Vitamin D3 in the molecular structure or in the ingredients? Guess what and this is one of the many brainwashes to the people. Getting people to believe what is healthy when it is not healthy, i.e., a bottle of Vitamin D3 with soybean oil and corn oil included in the composition of the Vitamin D3. This chemical makeup adds to more health issues. Bottles and bottles full of unnecessary chemicals do not set the stage for healthy populations.
So how the VA and the DOD manage the healthcare data is irrevlant to the veterans’ health. What is important in regards to the data is that it should be accurate and should not used for financial gain.
Finally, all this money being spent on technology is pathetic in my opinion. People cannot eat technology. Technology can be helpful if it is not weaponized against the people. Though, this is not what has been happening.
I agree with you Chicago Mike.
I was registered with the VA for 23 years, 1983, before it was discovered they had me recorded as “never serving ‘boots on ground in Vietnam'”!
There’s one big problem with their reasoning. I first registered in 1972, 4 years AFTER I was discharged from the Army! I did so because I was told I could get medical care. Was that a mistake#
I then joined the Navy in 75. Served until 82. Was medically discharged for injuries received in Vietnam!
Tell me the VA is great. I receive less than adequate healthcare.
They refused to treat me for many healthcare disabilities! I won’t go into all of the mistreatment I’ve received from this administration!
It is totally hard to understand. My mom’s brother is a VA contractor and retired after working for a federal agency for over 20 plus years. Crazy Elf I would like to know why they have even been slamming me. They have plenty of resources to attach. I do not get it. Benjamin, applying for scholarships and employment. I had already applied to different companies but even with openings posted come to find out they were not hiring. They mentioned the companies keep the positions posted as open. Unpaid work is not due to me. They have been shitting on me. When an employer sees this, this is not the accuate picture. However this is what they have contributed to. In order to fight them, I have to be positioned to and I have not been free enough from all the shit to fight them. I do not know what their deal is. I was out of place to live since the end of last spring up until January 2022. Companies will not hire without permanent residence and permanent everything. Been witnessing this with other people. So Ben and all tell me????
Crazy Elf
I hear you. Very hard to understand.
Ben thank you for your wonderful and well written article. I wish I wrote as well as you (or did even a percentage as you do for vets every day). I want to let you know that the VA near me has some very rude employees and they are verbally abusive to me. I filed reports with the White House vet number, patient advocate (veteran experience office), managers, VA police dept. Thank you and keep fighting, I am, the veteran “experience” does matter!
Benjamin, yes I plan to dive into this article you just put out. I have lots of feedback. Be back a little later to respond. Best.
Sounds good Angela.
I appreciate the kudos, Ben.
Ben,
I refused and still refuse to allow automatic records access due to anyone who wants to look at a Veterans’ records can without permission. A trail is a must for security purposes.
I am under contract through TriWest for specialized services in the community.
The v.a. at Cheyenne REFUSES to send that provider my records AND receive records from his office which is a clear violation of the contract.
My providers at the Cheyenne VAMC wanted to access the information due to a concern they have that I voiced to them. Not having access to those records is causing me to not receive the care I need.
Contacting senator barrasso’s office is futile.
Sounds like there are big challenges for veterans linked to Ft. Harrison and Cheyenne VAMC.
Hippa and this new rollout is a violation of a veterans civil liberties,
once there the agencies who have no right to access these files uses confidential Doctor Patient information and then uses it to attack a veteran for baseless reasons. This is also the action that Ft Harrison VA
has done with me personally as a disabled veteran having unauthorized none medical employees read my confidential files and then the non medical employee made personal attacks on mt civil rights. This is simply WRONG
Sympathy.
I told my mental health provider that I suspected that the MSA (who is authorized limited access but can read everything in a Veteran’s records) that was ‘bitchy, rude and disrespectful’ towards me every time I went in was reading my records illegally. He took me seriously when I encouraged ranking staff to sneak up behind her and catch her in the act.
They did, caught her and FIRED her on the spot!
Others to this day still do the same.
I contacted HIPPA and they said that the v.a. is TOTALLY exempt from HIPPA requirements. I say BULLSHIT!!!!!
In other words, we have to take what they dish out. I still say . . . BS
COO FIRST APPROACH EA Worksite Wellness LLC understand one thing about the VA system. The senior management does not care about what we think. Partnering with major corporations we don’t count. Bad actors have complicated the whole VA info system. Putting these type of software in place is going to produce more hardship. Review FTC reports the math is there.
is that not the truth, the VA Giving a Veteran a Second chance to die for their Country, VA management is a total
WOKE AGENCY