Why is army health care so bad?
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Question: I was enlisted in the army and now a dependent (my wife is still in) so I have been under Tri-Care for almost four years now; and not once have I been to an army hospital and been cured of the condition in which I arrived in. Last night I was waiting for three hours in the emergency room at Dewitt army hospital at fort Belvoir to be seen by a doctor who did not give me enough time to even tell him all of my symptoms before he just stated prescribing medications. Now 24 hours later I am going to the hospital again to see A REAL DOCTOR because I feel worse than I did yesterday. Just curious if I can get some insight on why the health care is so crapy. I am not going to even talk about ft lee’s health care. S.O.S
so I just got back from REAL hospital and I have pneumonia…
6 Comments
November 8th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Because it is government run.
November 8th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
That would be because they don’t give a f*ck and have little incentive to.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
It isn’t the worse, but at times it isn’t the best. I have heard sad stories of Army base hospitals. I have honestly had better care at Naval Hospitals than anything though. I hope you can get a resolution to your problem.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I can almost guarantee that the doctor knew what he was doing but probably was the only doctor on call and had to treat a lot of people. Believe me, if he didnt care then he probably wouldnt be around anymore and be in the civilian world making two or three times what he is making now. Most join because they like to help the troops. The military suffers an incredible shortage of doctors and nurses which puts a tremendous strain on them. A lot of them also have a ton of paperwork to do and to top it off, most civilians at the hospital dont really help much to begin with and in my experience hold back the doctors and nurses from doing their jobs. The fact of the matter is that we just need more doctors. As for your condition, it could be the illness itself that is putting you down even more. Just because the doctor prescribed something doesnt mean it will work immediately. It might shorten the duration or severity but not stop it. Then again, depending on what it is he might have mis-diagnosed but if its something similar to a cold he probably had it almost right. For some reason people always expect doctors to cure everything right away and always be a 100% right. Its not possible and since they dont always have the resources needed they have an even harder job. Dont get me wrong though, you might have gotten a bad doctor with no people skills which is sad but does happen. ( I have seen some of those who should be booted) Unless I am about to die or I think I broke something I dont go. I have only been to the hospital due to an allergic reaction to fire ants and a possible fracture of my tibia. They dont really have time to see people with colds so I dont go and its best advice that you dont as well if you can hack it yourself. If think you might be dying or something else is wrong please go though.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
The doctors that work for the military [civilians that is] know you are stuck with them, so they feel they can treat you poorly. Not all of them, but a good number of them.
Just so you know, the VA can be worse. In 6 years at one VA hospital my primary health care provider was a physician’s assistant. In the VA’s defense the hospital was crowded and under staffed, but they tried hard.
November 8th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Well, there are a few factors you need to consider.
1. If you have a medical degree of any sort, even just a 4 year degree, you’re allowed to be a military doctor. This also counts even if you’ve graduated bottom of your class. This means the military isn’t getting the cream of the crop, but rather the douche bags who needed a helping hand to get into the medical field. Not all military doctors are like this, but trust me, you can tell the difference (hint: that doc you say at Dewitt wasn’t one of the good docs that enlists to help).
2. The docs don’t have the time, or at least they act that way. Part of this is the fault of having one doctor per X-hundred or X-thousand service members, but the other part of the problem is those malingering douche bags that don’t want to go on a run that day. This causes an imbalance of the patient-to-doctor ratio. If the doctor were to spend quality time with each patient, s/he wouldn’t be able to see all the patients in a good amount of time. Instead, like you saw at Dewitt last night, they just wave their hands to move you along. But how can they do that? Enter point 3…
3. There’s no malpractice in the military. No matter what a doctor does to me in the military, I can’t sue. In fact, I became permanently disabled at the age of 24 at the hands of my docs, and I know other Marines who had the same exact problem. This would NEVER happen in the civilian world, even with an HMO, because if the doc gave you something that you didn’t need and it caused problems, that doctor would have his/her a** sued off. But if you’re a doctor feeling pressed for time and if you give out an inappropriate form of treatment to a patient that can’t sue you, then there’s “no harm” done. That doctor still gets to bring in a paycheck and practice medicine, no matter what happens to you. I’ve had doctors prescribe me medications that are on my drug allergy list because they didn’t care to spend half a second to ensure they weren’t giving me something that could KILL me (thankfully, with my wary nature, I noticed this before taking the drug).
When you put all these together, it’s very easy to see how this sh*t happens. And I’d count your blessings that it was only 3 hours. I’ve had to wait up to 12 hours to see a doctor in the ER, and that’s when I was having an allergic reaction to medication.