Someone please say "Walter Reed Hospital" to Joe Scarborough, et al

[CTyankee]

All morning on his show he was talking about the VA scandal. Nicole Wallace was shrieking again (I told her to get some voice modulation training but she didn't listen). Joe needs to go sleep it off. Mika wasn't around today to backhand Joe right in the chops (I sure would have). Everybody on the panel today was useless. Except for Sam Stein. He kept trying.

Can any DUers who tweet please tweet this link to Joe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed_Army_Medical_Center_neglect_scandal

[elleng]

1. What's the problem, yank,

he doesn't know the VA has had problems BEFORE this administration???

p.s., Walter Reed, the original, was in my DC neighborhood, about 3 minutes away from my house. Its a huge property, and they're deciding what to do with it now.

[CTyankee]

2. I started to contribute to Paralized Veterans of America after the Reed hospital scandal.

It was shocking.

We have a very good family friend who works for the VA...he's an anesthesiologist and works out of our VA facility not too far from my house. I have another friend who was an office worker and retired from that facility a few years ago. I need to talk to them about the VA issues...they have firsthand knowledge that I don't have (but would like to know).

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. I applied to be a VA nurse

- they had 31 openings at the Dayton branch at the time I applied, so I thought I might have a shot, but I had no experience in the field outside of school, and so I didn't make the cut. I'd still like to work for the VA, but I guess I'll need to find a job elsewhere for a few years before they'll be willing to look at me.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. Actually I thought Joe was saying that the VA service was terrible

all along. Sounds like he'd like to simply privatize everything.

I actually have changed my mind on Shinseki resigning, although not for the reasons others have.

I think he should go for 'pointy-haired boss' syndrome. Someone pointed out that the whole '14 day wait time' deadline that all of the bonuses or punishments were tied to was Shinseki's idea. That's a 'pointy-haired boss' deadline idea showing that he ignored reality and just made a policy that 'looked good', and expected reality to bend to his will.

A leader who understood reality would have realized that unplugging the clog in getting people into the system would just move the clog down the pipeline into getting people their first appointments. So attacking the backlog of people getting into the system without also simultaneously expanding the capability of the system to handle far more people was guaranteed to lead to a clog in first appointment wait times. And to then just turn around and declare by fiat that those wait times had to be under 14 days was delusional.

[CTyankee]

5. Joe did say that but let it get skipped over...it was wasn't helpful to his political agenda

today...plus, he indicated that he hated to interact with the VA while he was on Congress. Gee, Joe, if you are in such an outraged panty twist of the neglect of the VA system, what did you do in Congress to help?...finger pointing is just such good exercise....

I think the handwriting is on the wall for Shinseki...thanks for the info on him...he sounds a dense as a box of rocks...

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

6. I actually don't think he's 'dense', I think it's the training.

That's a very 'military' mindset, although I'm surprised to see all of it that far up the chain. By the time they get to general, you'd hope they'd be a bit more big picture, and not just focus entirely on one small objective at a time.

At the time he was appointed, all of the focus was on the enormous backlog of applications from vets wanting into the system. That's all that was in the news. So he dove in and attacked that backlog like a honey badger. But apparently gave no thought to what happened to all of those newly-processed vets once they got into the system.

So he made major inroads into the problem he was given... But it's not the military, you don't just get given a task, do it, and then get given another task.

[CTyankee]

7. I kinda figured that the military mindset was getting in his way on this...

there was one fairly good suggestion on the program today and I wish they had explored it further. That is get someone from a more recent war experience than Vietnam. Someone who sees the problem as you have described it. Surely we have somebody capable of the Big Picture as you put it so aptly...

[LibGranny]

8. I worked at the local VA hospital about 6 years ago in the credentialing office. One

of the women in the office spent most of her time applying for permanent jobs within the VA. We were all hired as temporary employees to help them get "caught up" with their paperwork. When she wasn't working on her job applications, she took hour and a half lunches, or came to work late and brought food to eat at her desk BEFORE she started work. She was just generally a lazy person HOWEVER, she got a job with the VA! I think this type behavior is probably rife within the VA system and it doesn't start at the top and roll down. Therefore, I fail to see how ousting GEN Shinseki would benefit anybody but those rethugs who are always trying to win points!