In the V.A.

Recently, the wife and I were in Arkansas looking after my elderly father. One item on the agenda during our visit was to drive him into Little Rock, AR to visit the Veterans Administration complex to get some new hearing aids. Long overdue. Long. Overdue.

We weren't really looking forward to our trip to the V.A. We've heard some bad stories: long lines, long waits, bad service, Walter Reed.....


My father has had a variety of hearing aids over the years, all of them from the V.A. His first pair were probably around 15 years ago, and they were large and clumsy and kept falling out of his ears. He's been having a few memory issues in the last few years, and he's had trouble hanging onto the hearing aids. He'd lose them here and there, and once half ate one when it fell into his food. Crunch crunch. Oops. Well, surprise! It quit working!

This time around, we heard (from somewhere) that he was due to get the latest generation of digital hearing aids. The latest generation....is the latest for the V.A.? But two or three iterations behind retail?

Natch, a late change in plans. Instead of just going to the V.A. specifically for his hearing aids, we were also going to go earlier, without an appointment, to see if we could squeeze him in for a renal ultrasound. I figured there was a slim to none chance of getting him an ultrasound without an appointment, at the V.A. Good luck doing that with a regular doctor or hospital. Also, we are adding to the number of veterans who need help rapidly. Latest estimates are that one in two returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are in need of extended medical care.

It was no trouble finding the V.A. complex in Little Rock. We needed to go to the"hospital" and it was easy to find. Well-marked. Crowded parking lot but we found a space quickly.

Walking into the hospital, the first thing you see is an Information Desk. Nice, but it was unmanned. Great. But look, a sign there says "all ultrasounds" thattaway. We did stop an employee anyway and ask where we would go for a renal ultrasound and he said, "just follow the orange arrows" on the floor. And there they were. Orange arrows, along with blue and red and green and black arrows. I guess as long as one is not color-blind, and remembers what arrow they are following, that should be easy.

It was. We went into an office and I explained our situation. We didn't have an appointment, but hoped to get him in anyway. The attendant had us complete a very short form and sit in the waiting room. There were three of us: me, my father and my wife, and there was only one seat open in the waiting room, and I saw a sign prominently stating, "Chairs are ONLY for waiting patients." So we gave my father the seat, and the wife and I headed back outside.

At the door, we saw the attendant again and I told her that the wife and I would go wait in the massive waiting room at the front of the hospital because, "the sign in there says the chairs are only for the patients." She gave me a huge smile and said, "You're the first person to notice that! Thank you!"

So we followed the orange arrows in reverse and got to the main entrance, where we took a seat. Fortunately, we both brought a book to read. We decided that we would wait for only about an hour to get his ultrasound. If they could not give it to him within an hour, we would go back and get my father, go get some lunch and then be ready in time for the 1pm appointment that we did have for his hearing aids.

After reading for about 15 minutes, I looked up and saw a nurse leading my father right in front of me. I called out, "Daddy! Hey, Daddy!" I forget. He's deaf, without hearing aids, so I followed them around a corner into another room, and through a door marked "Ultrasound Patients Only." Wow. So soon. There were two chairs outside this door, so I sat in one to wait.

I went back outside to the main waiting room, fetched my wife, and we both sat outside the Ultrasound room. In about 15 minutes, here they come, the nurse and my father, ultrasound complete. And the original hour was not even up yet! Wow, they squeezed him in for an ultrasound after waiting only 15 minutes. I have to wonder if this sort of experience is uncommon. I have no idea.

Since we now had plenty of time before his 1pm hearing aid appointment, which, we were told, was also just down the hall (you're kidding! how convenient!), we went to the cafeteria also just down another hall and had a reasonably decent hamburger and onion rings, chips, drinks, all for $20 for 3. And good.

So now, after lunch, it's only 12:30pm, and we decided to go ahead and go to the hearing aid location and see if they might be able to take him a little early. We found it again, no problem, but they said they were on schedule and would take him at 1pm as normal. Oh well. Not a problem. We had reading material in the small waiting room with ten chairs. There were three chairs together, so we took them.

I took out my book and began reading again, and my wife tried to, but my father wouldn't let her, regaling her with endless stories from his youth, or last week, or comments about other people in the waiting room, such as "look at the gorgeous white hair on that woman," or "I bet they're bikers" after two leather-clad, tough-looking, tatoo-covered people had left the waiting room. Gee, ya think?

Fortunately, for me, and unfortunately for my wife, my father just loves my wife to death. He always wants to tell her this or that, and she indulges him by listening rapturously. Thank goodness for her, because she takes some of his heat off of me. I am soooo grateful for her.

At about 11:45am, they called him in to an interior room and told us we could also come along. Inside an interior room, the technician, Larry, went over his hearing aid history with him. Larry was the same person that worked with him for his first hearing aids! Now that is impressive, to have such continuity.

Larry confirmed that, indeed, Daddy was about to get the absolute top-of-the-line, latest-and-greatest hearing aids on the market. Digital. Directional. All sorts of cool. Click this link to read about them. Retail, they would cost upwards of $6,000 for the pair. So I asked Larry, "And how much were these hearing aids going to cost my father?"

Larry replied, "They cost your father two years of military service." Beyond that, gratis. Wow. I was floored.

Larry went through a lengthy calibration session aided by a computer software program to set both hearing aids for my fathers particular hearing ability. His right ear is much worse than the left. The whole session took about 30 minutes, and we were all very impressed with the thoroughness and patience of Larry. REALLY impressed. Daddy will even get lifetime battery replacements whenever he needs them, for only the cost of shipping (under $10).

All in all, it was a very amazing visit to the V.A. Everyone was super-friendly, even to the point of random helpers in the hallways greeting us cheerfully and asking if they could help us find something. We saw the whole gamut of veterans that day: younger men without arms or legs to older, nose-ringed, tattooed old guys being wheeled around on gurneys.

My wife and I left marveling at this "government-run" health care system and hoping that someday, EVERYONE in this country of ours could have medical care of this quality and price.

While we are certain that not every visit to a V.A. facility will be as effortless and gratifying as this one was, at least they have the services available. If veterans care was entrusted to private healthcare and private insurance, it would probably suck worse, and cost a lot more.