Whether the VA has been persuasive about the benefits of the program is unclear. “I think it’s incumbent on us to demonstrate it’s not a loss,” said Dr. Terry Adirim, the leader of the VA office in charge of implementing the new records technology. “We might have dropped the ball on explaining what a benefit this is.”
Indeed, Adirim conducted a virtual town hall meeting March 21 for veterans in the Walla Walla area — where she was pressed about the problems in Spokane. “If Spokane has been a year figuring this out, why is this moving forward?” one questioner asked, expressing a point made frequently during the call. Adirim said the VA had made “thousands of changes” since the initial rollout.
Medical staffers at the Spokane and Walla Walla VA facilities are part of informal networks sharing their often-negative experiences about the program despite a perception among staff members that dissent will hurt their careers.
Adirim thinks negative feelings can be addressed by stepping up technical support. She also said training programs have been overhauled since the deployment in Spokane. Bottom line: The VA is proceeding.
“People want to revert back to what they did before,” Adirim said, but that’s not going to happen.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
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