The Hampton VA Medical Center will host a town hall-style forum Wednesday, part of a national effort to restore the agency’s credibility.
The event is open to patients as well as other veterans and stakeholders. Top medical center leaders, including Director Michael Dunfee, will be there to answer questions and hear feedback, officials said.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald in August ordered all VA health care and benefits facilities to hold the meetings by the end of this month. “As we seek continual improvement and to rebuild trust among veterans,” McDonald said at the time, “it is critical that we continue to listen and learn directly from those who use our system.”
The VA has been working for months to correct a range of major problems, including long treatment delays and falsified wait times for appointments. The discoveries forced the resignation of the last VA secretary, Eric Shinseki.
Compared with some other hospitals, issues uncovered at the Hampton center were mild. Fifteen percent of Hampton employees told auditors they were instructed to falsify appointment information, according to the VA. Staff at a VA clinic in Virginia Beach, which is overseen by the Hampton medical center, also said they were told to improperly record appointment data, auditors reported.
The Hampton medical center served about 45,000 veterans last year.
The local forum is from 5 to 7 p.m. in Building 83 near the patient and visitor parking lot and the hospital’s main entrance. The address is 100 Emancipation Drive in Hampton. For directions and a map: www.hampton.va.gov.
