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My opinion of VA healthcare dropped a lot living next to a VA hospital. There were a lot of homeless nearby who seemed to be veterans who had come for the hospi

by gs17 3y ago

My opinion of VA healthcare dropped a lot living next to a VA hospital. There were a lot of homeless nearby who seemed to be veterans who had come for the hospital.

dragonwriter 3y ago
Seems to me that the problem there is the non-healthcare part of how America provides for veterans (and citizens in general). If the same veterans with the same healthcare weren't homeless...
akuchling 3y ago
I don't see how this is the hospital's fault: they can't keep patients indefinitely. Today's Washington Post has an article on the increasing number of homeless seniors https://wapo.st/3q8Gzeb https://wapo.st/3q8Gzeb which includes this passage: "After treatment for an acute illness, hospitals often discharge homeless patients, who wind up back in shelters or even back into their sidewalk tents and makeshift lean-tos, in what health practitioners in Phoenix ruefully call “treat-and-street.” ... A pinball effect takes hold, said health-care providers, shelter operators and advocates. Homeless people bounce from homeless shelter to hospital, then to a nursing home for a short-term recuperation stay. Once that short-term stay ends, nursing homes must decide if the person is infirm enough to qualify for long-term care. If the answer is no, they must leave the nursing home, starting the cycle over again."
- gs17 3y ago
  I would consider it VA not being an example of "it works fine" if they can sometimes get some help after waiting a long time, then get dumped out in the street to rot. Maybe the specific hospital itself isn't at fault, but the program in general is contributing to the exact issue you're quoting, which is more or less what I'm talking about.
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    Seems to me it is a poverty support/housing problem, not a healthcare problem (which, sure, impacts healthcare, in the same sense that poverty/housing issues impact education and pretty much every other aspect of society.)

by gs17 3y ago

My opinion of VA healthcare dropped a lot living next to a VA hospital. There were a lot of homeless nearby who seemed to be veterans who had come for the hospital.

dragonwriter 3y ago

Seems to me that the problem there is the non-healthcare part of how America provides for veterans (and citizens in general). If the same veterans with the same healthcare weren't homeless...

akuchling 3y ago

I don't see how this is the hospital's fault: they can't keep patients indefinitely. Today's Washington Post has an article on the increasing number of homeless seniors https://wapo.st/3q8Gzeb https://wapo.st/3q8Gzeb which includes this passage: "After treatment for an acute illness, hospitals often discharge homeless patients, who wind up back in shelters or even back into their sidewalk tents and makeshift lean-tos, in what health practitioners in Phoenix ruefully call “treat-and-street.” ... A pinball effect takes hold, said health-care providers, shelter operators and advocates. Homeless people bounce from homeless shelter to hospital, then to a nursing home for a short-term recuperation stay. Once that short-term stay ends, nursing homes must decide if the person is infirm enough to qualify for long-term care. If the answer is no, they must leave the nursing home, starting the cycle over again."

gs17 3y ago
I would consider it VA not being an example of "it works fine" if they can sometimes get some help after waiting a long time, then get dumped out in the street to rot. Maybe the specific hospital itself isn't at fault, but the program in general is contributing to the exact issue you're quoting, which is more or less what I'm talking about.
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  Seems to me it is a poverty support/housing problem, not a healthcare problem (which, sure, impacts healthcare, in the same sense that poverty/housing issues impact education and pretty much every other aspect of society.)