{"id":31604,"date":"2018-08-07T18:24:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T18:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=31604"},"modified":"2018-08-07T18:24:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-07T18:24:02","slug":"hoping-the-va-health-system-keeps-working-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=31604","title":{"rendered":"Hoping the VA health system keeps working &#8212; well!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-26-at-6.44.50-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-31605\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-26-at-6.44.50-PM-300x154.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"154\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-26-at-6.44.50-PM-300x154.png 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-26-at-6.44.50-PM-768x393.png 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-26-at-6.44.50-PM.png 953w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You know already that I am a big fan of my <em>pre-paid<\/em> medical insurance plan provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>My wife and I are venturing back to Amarillo in a few days to get ready for a trip out west in our recreational vehicle. Before we shove off, I have a routine medical examination scheduled with my health care provider at the Thomas E. Creek Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.<\/p>\n<p>To date, the VA med center has run like a well-oiled machine. I show up at the appointed time, I wait a few minutes, I get called back, the nurse practitioner gives me the once over, tells me I&#8217;m in good health and I&#8217;m on my way out the door.<\/p>\n<p>I just received a <em>text<\/em> message from the Creek Medical Center. It asked me to confirm my scheduled appointment next week. I did.<\/p>\n<p>Then it sent a message immediately after that, ordering me to report to the medical center &#8220;15 minutes before your appointment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the deal. My appointment is <em>late<\/em> in the morning, which means that the VA will have plenty of opportunity to get backed up. That means &#8212; at least that&#8217;s been my experience over the years with <em>private<\/em> medical providers &#8212; that the later in the day one sees a doc, the longer the wait times. Am I right about that? Yep. I am!<\/p>\n<p>So, my question is this: Is the VA going to ask me to wait 15 minutes longer than I need to wait or am I going to see the health care provider at the appointed time?<\/p>\n<p>I will have faith that the latter is going to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, I do cherish public health care.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know already that I am a big fan of my pre-paid medical insurance plan provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. My wife and I are venturing back to Amarillo in a few days to get ready for a trip out west in our recreational vehicle. Before we shove off, I have a routine &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=31604\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hoping the VA health system keeps working &#8212; well!<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1356,7936,5077],"class_list":["post-31604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medical-news","tag-department-of-veterans-affairs","tag-public-health-care","tag-va"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31606,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31604\/revisions\/31606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}