VA improving, expanding to help returning troops

Charleston Regional Business Journal
Sheila Watson
September 8, 2008

The veteran arrived for his appointment at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center with moments to spare.

A year ago he was in Iraq. Today, a valet parked his car, allowing him to get to his appointment on time.

It might seem like a small detail — and a far cry from the deserts north of Baghdad — but the VA Medical Center is trying to take care of the small details to make medical visits less of a headache for people trying to get back to their lives at home.

“That’s one small example of a tangible change we’ve made that has helped improve things here,” said Tonya Lobbestael, public affairs officer with the Charleston VA. “It’s a business efficiency too, helping us move patients to appointments in a timely manner. And that feeds into patient satisfaction and into quality care.”

The free valet parking began in February, but other improvements have been ongoing for several years. Those improvements helped propel the Charleston VA higher in this year’s rankings of quality, patient satisfaction and access at the nation’s 155 VA hospitals. In a release by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the medical center rated No. 2 in quality of clinical care and in the top 10 overall.

Two years ago, the Charleston VA facility ranked No. 79 overall. John Barilich, director of the center, attributes the increase in rankings to the skill and expertise of the staff.

“Here at the Charleston VA, we’ve always provided excellent medical care,” Barilich said. “These metrics are just part of the proof.”

Making improvements
Specific improvements include expanded access to services for veterans; cooperation with the Charleston Naval Health Clinic and the Medical University of South Carolina to offer the latest medical technologies and treatment; and a significant increase in staff.

Other updates and improvements include an expanded primary care area, with some of the new staff members allocated there, and expanded and updated operating rooms and several patient care wings.

During the past 18 months, 300 positions have been added, most of them clinicians, and the mental health staff was doubled to 100.

The facility also added staff members to its Seamless Transition Team, which works with the Department of Defense to provide care for active-duty service members, particularly returning combat veterans. A post-traumatic stress disorder center has been set up and uses new treatments with cognitive-behavioral therapies to treat returning soldiers.

“Everyone across the entire Department of Veterans Affairs is ramping up mental health services,” said Barilich, who worked in mental health in the VA’s central office for 20 months before coming to Charleston. “We were looking at these things back in 2004, looking at what the vets of Iraq and Afghanistan would be facing when they came back.”

Collaborative efforts
Barilich said part of the VA’s work in mental health involves the hospital’s partnership with MUSC.

“They have an excellent psychiatric program, and we have some of their interns working here,” he said. “It’s a real benefit to be working with MUSC in that capacity as well as in other areas. We’re attempting to provide services in early intervention, as opposed to waiting for a full-blown psychiatric occurrence. We’re being proactive as opposed to reactive.”

The Charleston VA is also partnering with MUSC through a program to train nurses to work with veterans.

MUSC is one of seven new collaborators between the Department of Veterans Affairs and nursing schools under the VA Nursing Academy, a virtual organization with central administration in Washington. The academy is designed to expand learning opportunities for nursing students at VA facilities, fund additional faculty positions and increase recruitment and retention of VA nurses. The five-year, $40 million program began in 2007.

“This is another sharing opportunity we have with MUSC,” Barilich said. “People have been aware of the nursing shortage for some time, and now nursing schools are getting more than enough qualified applicants and are having to turn a lot of them away because of the lack of nursing faculty or funds to support a nursing program. This program will help alleviate that.”

Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake said the expanded role of the VA in the education of the nurses will help ensure enough nurses are available to provide care for veterans.

“The VA Nursing Academy expands our teaching faculty, improves recruitment and retention and creates new educational and research opportunities,” Peake said.

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