(This story is by Nora Doyle-Burr, of the Valley News, in which it first appeared July 1, 2017.)
[W]HITE RIVER JUNCTION — Officials at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center have found that collaborations — among their own employees and with community partners — are helping to improve care, they said during a press event and town hall meeting Friday.
Collaboration among care providers at the White River Junction VA Medical Center has reduced veterans’ length of stay in the hospital’s medical and surgical rooms from about six days in January to four now, according to the center’s director, Alfred Montoya Jr.
As a result, “more veterans have access to the beds,” said Montoya, himself an Air Force veteran.
In addition, Montoya emphasized the VA’s top clinical priority is to prevent suicide deaths of veterans. Nationally, 20 veterans die of suicide each day, 14 of whom never receive care at a VA medical center, according to statistics provided by the VA.
VA staff members are holding outreach events in an effort to prevent such deaths and to “let vets know we’re here and here to help,” Montoya said.
Such efforts were among those Montoya outlined during Friday’s events at the White River Junction VA, which serves veterans in Vermont and the four contiguous counties of New Hampshire.
The event came a little more than a week after the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General released a report ordering the White River Junction VA to improve patient care in 24 areas, based on a site inspection conducted in December.
The findings identified issues in the evaluation of quality, safety and value; medication management; coordinating care; moderate sedation; community nursing home oversight and management of disruptive and violent behavior.
“What it boiled down to was documentation issues and a lack of attention to detail,” Montoya said.
VA officials began work to correct the problems on the day after the federal inspection, he said. The report indicates that seven of the issues have been addressed, while the inspector general’s office will be following up on the others.
The length-of-stay remedy was one of the outcomes of the federal inspection, Montoya said.
During the town hall, Army veteran Jim Harlow, of Thetford, expressed concern that VA officials were moving veterans through the hospital faster than they should.
“What kind of medical wand did you put over these people to get them to heal?” he said, referring to the reduced length of stay.
Montoya said the reduced length of stay in the center’s 43 medical and surgical beds is a result of nurses collaborating to more rapidly find appropriate places in nursing or rehab facilities and working with the veterans transport system to schedule trips home.
“What it was was all the disciplines weren’t talking together,” he said.
Before joining a community connections committee at the VA Medical Center, Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin, who attended Friday’s event, said she had found the institution, which provides care to Twin State residents, to be somewhat of a “black box.”
But now, she said, she has a better sense of the services available there and is better equipped to inform community members.
The number of veterans dying of suicide “scares the heck out of me,” Griffin said.
The committee focuses on the question of “what more can we do?” she said.
Among other things, she said they are focused on letting family members know to keep an eye out for the signs of severe depression and on letting VA officials know about the needs of those in their community, including homeless veterans and those with mental illnesses.
Army veteran Jerry Greenwood also demonstrated an effort to reach more veterans. In a van parked outside the medical center, Greenwood showed off a mobile vet center, which is equipped with a couch and two chairs and Internet service and travels New England offering readjustment counseling to veterans.
Greenwood said the vet center, which operates separately from the medical center and has a permanent location on Prospect Street in White River Junction, can help reach veterans who may prefer to seek care outside of the hospital system.
“(Psychiatrists) think they know everything about being a combat vet,” said Greenwood, who served in combat in Iraq and Panama. “They don’t.”
Montoya also outlined several other areas of focus for the VA nationally, including modernizing greater choice, focusing resources and improving timelines.
The hospital will host a mental health care summit focusing on suicide prevention July 28, Montoya said. The community is invited.
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