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dialogue

20

MAY / JUN 2015

I 

Healthcare Journal of new orleans  

‘‘

they are going to come to us I think is three-

fold. One, we provide very comprehensive

care—it’s a one-stop shop, it’s very conve-

nient in that sense.The other is that we flood

the market for veterans more than anyone

else.We have our clinics throughout, we are

designed to provide care where the veterans

live and that’s important.The third really has

to do with who we are. We understand the

patient, we understand the patient culture,

we’re designed to take care of the patient,

and the veterans want to come to us.

When we look at choices that veterans

have…and again this market is not a good

example because there’s no hospital to go to,

but if you look elsewhere in theVA, the norm

is that veterans would rather wait for care

at their VA hospital than buy private care.

When we look at specialty care or primary

care, evenmental health care outside the VA

system, waiting times tend to be very long.

There are always exceptions, but they tend

to be long. So I think we are going to see a

merging of the systems.

There was a very interesting report this

morning on NPR about how patient satis-

faction scores will affect revenue.There was

a focus on the report on pain management,

which I thought was very interesting. Hos-

pitals who receive less than perfect patient

satisfaction scores with regards to howpain

was managed, get no funding. That’s a big

change. I think that’s one of the things that

will help overall healthcare, and it will, in

a lot of ways, challenge the VA to be even

more competitive and be more the health-

care choice for veterans.

The flipside is that we take care of the

veteran, but we don’t have full blown author-

ity to take care of the familymembers. Some-

times that’s a challenge. We’re finding that

more andmore female veterans are choosing

to use the VA. More women join the military

and eventually leave the military and leave

active duty, and they are choosing the VA as

their healthcare provider.That’s a big change

in the system. I think the new facility and the

clinics here are going to be well positioned

for female veterans. We have decentralized

our services for female veterans in the com-

munity.The reason I point that out is because

inmost homes it’s the female that makes the

healthcare decisions. So if we have the female

veterans choosing us, odds are that an uncle,

brother, granddad, spouse, will also come to

the VA. For us it’s a key marketing strategy. I

amnot going tomincewords about that one.

Wewant asmany female veterans aswe have.

I hadn’t been here twoweeks and I asked that

we start to do focus groups with all veterans

who are females and who are employees of

our system. I want to hear fromthembecause

they are on both sides of the counter. I am

waiting to get those results now.

I met with our female programcoordina-

tor just to get at that point—howare we going

to get those folks back? This is going to be

one of the ways we do it. There’s been a big

push to involve the families more and the

design of the new hospital is with the fam-

ily inmind. Right now the system is designed

to take care of the sickest and the poorest.

Next in prioritywill be the remainder of those

22 million that were also putting their lives

on the line, and then I think we are going to

have to look at family.Then at some point we

become the only healthcare system. Some-

where in the middle it becomes almost cost

prohibitive; we just don’t have the capacity to

see everybody we would like to see. But you

can’t argue with the mission, right?

Q 

So what does it mean for you to be affili-

ated with the VA?

A

 For me it’s a very personal story. I was

born in Cuba in a Navy hospital in Havana.

My father was a Navy officer, my grandfa-

ther was a Navy officer. My father lost his life

fighting trying to overcome the communist

regime in a Castro takeover. I grewup in this

environment where freedomwas highly val-

ued. Mymother, my grandparents, and I left

Cuba and came toNewOrleans. I grewup in

this town. I came to work at the VAhospital

here right out of engineering school.At first I

wasn’t very familiar with hospitals and to tell

you the truth, in those days we had a lot of

veterans holding an IVpole in one hand and

a cigarette in the other, standing in the front

of the VAhospital. I had never seen somany

people inwheelchairs, missing legs or arms.

I thought to myself, “I’m not going to be

here very long. I amgoing to get myMBAand

work here as long as I need to and then I’m

gone.” What happened to me is what hap-

pens to a lot of other people in the VA; you

fall in love with themission. You understand

what these men and women represent. You

understand what we’re doing. And how do

you walk away from that?

Inmy case I understand the price of free-

dom in a personal way so I have a very per-

sonal connection with the sacrifice that our

patients havemade. Serving themhas been a

real privilege and I say that from the bottom

of my heart. And to be able to come back to

my hometown, and sort of going forward 30

years, say not only have I benefitted fromall

the wonderful opportunities that this great

country of ours has given me, and that the

VAhas givenme, but now I get to come back

in a way that allows me to serve and return

this referral destination hospital to the region

to serve our most current generation of vet-

erans and previous generations of veterans.

It’s a gift. Who could walk away from that? I

feel really blessed. 

n

We understand the patient,

we understand the patient

culture, we’re designed to take

care of the patient, and the

veterans want to come to us.