Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center - Charleston, South Carolina

VSO

3 updates
Where do I even start?
1) Community care expects you to answer every call and refuses to call when it's convenient for the Vet. I was just on hold with community care for 1 hour and 25 minutes (see photo) before I heard, "I'm sorry, we're currently experiencing a system error. Please try your call again later, " and I was hung up on.
2) The pharmacy refuses to give me the prescription that I was prescribed by another VA, which works for me, and wants to give me another that doesn't. They literally said, "we can write you a prescription so you can go to the pharmacy, but you have to pay out-of-pocket." No joke! She instructed me to purchase it out of pocket! I'm 100% P&T service connected disabled.
3) My drive to primary care takes over an hour, but they refuse to allow me community care.
4) I had to find out On My Own that the VA scans of my thyroid showed level 5, highly concerning, nodules. *update 3* it's now a goiter. They are telling me it's normal. They also say the pain that radiates up my jaw into my neck is normal, and I just need physical therapy for it!
5) I sent a secure message to my primary care regarding said results. She only called me to discuss my cholesterol. I am a health nut, fit, and have no history of cholesterol issues, but hypothyroidism IS a cause of cholesterol issues and liver failure!!
And... 6) As of this post (in November) there are still several other appointments that haven't been sent to community care that haven't been scheduled since my requests in August
*update 1*
I'm finished playing games with the mental health team. The lack of care and concern for my marriage is astounding, so I'm going elsewhere. *update 2* The VA, after 4 months of pleading, agreed to give me marriage counseling. *Update 4* I met two couples so far that have received VA marital counseling within 2 months' time of the request. One couple of which who was sent to a retreat courtesy of the VA.
This VA is by far the worst I have ever encountered!

Leonard Johnson

I had a very good and quick experience here at the VA. The staff was very friendly, and they were very complimentary of my wife’s work of patching me up before we decided to have them check on my injury (she’s a PA). I can remember a quicker or more pleasant experience in a clinic or hospital, urgent, ER, or otherwise.

Tony Sumrow

Just a complete failure for an emergency consult for an emergency condition. Patient advocate would not return phone call. Triage nurse could not help transfer my information to my clinic in Brunswick. Veteran cannot contact their own primary doctor, nurse or doctor to speak to them about an emergency consult. Ralph h. Johnson, VA medical center could not help veteran to receive consult authorization. Community Care Was finally provided an emergency consult for civilian emergency Operation but could not get the consult signed today. Community Care operator tried contacting all of her supervisors and she was unable to receive help to have my consult approved for emergency care. This all started this morning on 11 October at 8:30. A.m..o the veteran will have to wait in severe pain for treatment from the orthopedic surgeon till Monday and probably further due to the failures of this hospital and the VA system.

Aaron Delmain

My father Jamie was admitted here and diagnosed with possible glioblastoma. Unfortunately he went into respiratory failure before they could do surgery on him. My father passed away at mscu a day later on the 10th. I want to thank every single person in that icu for their care of my father. They kept us in the loop for everything, even when he wasn’t awake they would speak to him and tell him everything they were doing. Their kindness will stay with me for the rest of my life and I want them to know they made all the difference in my experience losing my dad. Thank you all so much. ❤️

Bernadine Browning

My husband had appointment on Tuesday Sept 3 to get his lab work done. When he got there the system was down and they turned him away. He was told they would call with a new appointment. It's been 2 days & nothing. He called the Hinesville # and spoke with Keesha-Ann from appointment. She couldn't do anything but she would turn this over to your nurse. Then why is she working the appointment line. My husband has appointment on Tuesday September 10 for the results of his Labs work...How's that going to work for him. Please explain!!

Elliot Epstein

Why bother writing a review. The VA is full of incompetence and I'm sick of it. I'm fully able and find it very difficult to be a patient.

The entire system is setup to underserve veterans!

Edit* The veteran is the upmost responsible for his or her health. Even at the direction of the doctors you must do your own research and be a doctor yourself otherwise you will be misdiagnosed and probably injured

Tenee Baker

This is the reason why I have to give this facility a one star: I have had more difficulty with this facility and this VISN than I have ever had with any other VA Medical Center. A lot of the doctors and specialists were wonderful. What isn't so great is beneficiary travel. I do think that this is an issue with a lot of the VA Facilities, but it needs to be clear that if we are to be sent out into the community, that it is conveyed to the community care provider and the veteran that beneficary travel needs to be submitted and not automatically reimbursed like it would be for the Kiosks at the facility. I was denied beneficary travel when I had to come up to MUSC per my general surgeons orders to get an implant. This implant would be for the location of where they were going to remove my benign mass that had gotten bigger on my left breast. So I traveled 2.5 hours to go to MUSC because that is where they sent me and VA facility did not have the equipment for that procedure. I was already struggling financially because I had traveled back and forth preparing for two procedures. One had to be moved and it is decided that both procedures could be done on the same day. The problem was that number one, beneficiary travel was and still is backlogged, so I couldn't get reimbursed. Patient advocate could not assist because they didn't have any programs. I was sent to social work with suprisingly they had no solutions for me either. This left me in my car, upset and calling the crisis hotline. I have 8 specialists between MUSC and VA. And I was concerned that I was not going to be able to afford returning for my preop appt. My mother was traveling from California to help me with my recovery and with my daughter. I was so stressed that I felt like just ending it. I was thankful that another social worker was able to help with some solutions and local veteran organizations took out their own money to make sure that I got back and forth for the rest of the month. I have been back and forth with travel and their BTSS program. Since I was confused on where to submit and it is shown in their system that I placed the form in the incorrect spot, then resubmitted it as their supervisor told me to, I was denied for the travel that I had to go to for my breast tag. I explained what happened and they didn't seem to give a damn because it was over 30 days since I had the procedure. I have submitted the form as provided in the denial letter which was a Notice of Disagreement and requested a higher level review. I got a message just telling me that it was denied with no actual process of my higher review and informal hearing. Almost like it was ignored. When someone request for a higher review, I don't think that the address should be the VA Medical Facility. I have only seen these things happen with the VBA and not the VHA. To this day, the form that I submitted has not been answered and I am having difficulties submitting forms into the system because the community care providers are not on their list. I was rudely told in a secure message that one of them was there and I needed to know where. They lied to patient advocate and put in writing that they have spoken to me when they have not. So now, I have to send this up to the Senator's office because it appears that travel is either annoyed with me or they simply do not care about how much of a hardship that they can put veterans and their families in. The no exceptions rule for 30 days is crap, especially when veterans are not being made aware. Providers would be more than happy to have forms on standby, which they do now that I AS THE VETERAN told them something that the VA should have been telling them. I mean, they are paying for our care, so why leave them in the dark?

The veteran organizations that helped me locally I am extremely greatful for, but it is sad that they did more for me and my care than this facility's beneficiary travel has done. These veterans also do not trust this facility because of beneficiary travel alone. Stop lying to us and do better. We deserve better.

BigLuke51

I had a very great healthcare experience at the Charleston VA Ralph H. Johnson healthcare system. I was greeted and thanked for my service. They treated me with excellent care. I felt extremely safe and comfortable with the staff that was assigned to my care team. I would definitely like to thank the receptionist for the prompt and professional checkin experience. My nurse was Alonda and Rachel. These ladies on the third floor rock on all levels!! Both of these ladies were extremely professional and compassionate with me from start to finish. They were very transparent and they kept my husband well informed with updates throughout my procedure. I know people have different experiences, but overall my experience was very good and I would highly recommend this Charleston VA healthcare system to other veterans. FYI, it’s not a perfect system, but what system is perfect when we are dealing with imperfect people. We have to do our part to help improve other veterans healthcare experiences by being more grateful for the services that are being provided to Veterans via this system.