It is becoming very clear to this writer that the Michigan Veterans home in Grand Rapids, has a medical staff that willfully ignores Federal VA Doctors medical instructions for Veterans. It now seems that the home has a history of doing this and it may be because of a bad policy at the home.
While at the home, a Veterans first and main Care provider is the Homes medical staff. However, if they cannot handle a situation, they can refer the veteran to the local VA clinic who can then refer the veteran to the VA hospital or to a local hospital.
Many Veterans who have lived at the home and who had to go to the VA hospital in Ann Arbor for treatment, returned with doctors instructions and medications lists, that were Ignored and/or changed by the Homes medical staff.
This practice should be questioned. If the home is not capable of treating the veteran, then they should be required to follow the medical instructions of the doctors who are treating the veteran.
Also, a veterans needs after returning from the VA hospital are either over looked, or totally ignored by the homes medical staff.
Veterans have constant problems with the home notifying them in adequate time of upcoming appointments at the local VA clinic or one of the 2 VA hospitals (Battle Creek or Ann Arbor).
Some times the veteran is told the day of the appointment just hours or minutes before. Some times they are told AFTER the fact, and have to call and reschedule an appointment that took them months to get in the first place.
A number of veterans have moved into the home, already taking prescribed medications from Other doctors both private and VA, and the home completely changes their medications and schedules.
In one case a man returned from the VA with prescriptions. The Dom unit nurses demanded he turn them over to them despite the fact that people in Dom medicate themselves and keep their med's in locked drawers. This person was told they were taking him off the VA prescribed drugs and putting him on other drugs. He refused to turn the VA drugs over and he was told either to surrender them or he would have to leave the home. The guy left the home and is now seeking legal remedy for what he perceives as wrong doing by the homes medical and administrative staff.
A more recent case, Fred Ayers came to the home and the home 100 percent changed his medications from that which he was used to.
Several veterans have told me that if they go to the VA and get medications they do not report it to their nurses or the meds will be taken away. They do not like the home not following VA doctors instructions.
Part of this problem is that there are 2 jurisdictions involved. Federal and State. Both have their own computerized systems and neither one is compatible with the other. Therefore the records of the veteran while at the home are not being relayed to the Federal VA system and Vice versa. This needs to be addressed and repaired so that both systems can talk to each other and a veterans records can be instantly updated by either of the 2 parties, so that either of the 2 parties can see what is being done with the Veteran at any given time, and the information be up to date, not 8 months old.
