Feb. 24, 2014 - Access to electronic records has enhanced patient and doctor communication among the country’s veterans, according to a recent U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs study and local veteran medical providers agree communication and satisfaction with health care have improved.Overton Brooks VA Medical Clinic public affairs officer Sandy Franks said VA’s system is one the private sector is trying to duplicate as it provides continuity of care and immediate access to a patient’s health records by any physician at any VA clinic or hospital.
For example, a Monroe veteran can go anywhere in the United States, and the VA clinic or hospital staff can pull up their entire medical history with the click of a button. Medical staff can see every form of treatment, tests and medicine prescribed for that veteran since the time he or she has been enrolled in the VA database.
“Everyone is looking at the same medical records. If you only see one doctor, then your communication is excellent, but you can be sent to different doctors who may not see the different reports from each doctor. In the VA it’s all about continuity of care and that’s paramount, especially if you have a person with a lot of medical issues,” Franks said. read more>>>
The thought of responsibility and neglect are tragically different between the combat veteran, socioeconomic veteran (non combatant) and VA staff. More attention needs to be placed on these differences as VA hires more non combat veterans it must find a way to increase the understanding about why combat veterans have more of a stake in health care delivery than other more numerous and politically savvy non combat veteran patients.
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