for the seasion

John ED Renstrom

PCS Member
Super Site Supporter
I retired out of this place on December 31 2009 after 23 years of working here. the VA would like to close it down. the clame no one wants to move to a small town so they can't hire anyone. it was built in 1906-07 by the GAR as a TB sanatorium. the first veteran pt went in in December 07. the VA took it over when they were created in 24. at it's peak there were 5 wards in the hospital 50 beds each active surgery unit and a 6 bed ICU. with full support in diagnostics and out pt services running in the range of 1500 visits a month 500 beds in the domiciliary. active subsistence abuse program after care and work restoration programs and 100 bed homeless program and PTSD. veterans would come in male and female go into what they need the most. most were policy-substance abusers from self medication. then they would float to what every program was needed. giving the training in life skills and money threw the work restoration phase. so they had skills and a graduation certificate thew the state vo tec school as a nursing aid, Housekeeper or painter or employment in one of the other jobs for income and work hx. to give them a chance to recover and turn there life around with enough funds earned by them to get a start. then as the VA starting in 96 began to shut things down by abandoning them in favor of a big clinic in Rapid. so today it has 50 empty homeless beds no staff says management. homeless shelter in Rapid has a 50 bed veterans wing and been given over a million 6 to give homeless vets a place off the street. The PTSD and substance abuse program is still in place but they have a year waiting list to get in. the out pt clinic has 4 PAs or nurse practitioners. the ER is now a urgent care with one Dr. most of diagnoses has moved to a one day a week or not at all. majority of things are funneled 100 miles north to FT Mead. all supervisors and upper management are at FT mead drop down once a week to take care of things. Hot Springs has always been under staffed, under funded, but comes in under budget with a high pt satisfaction rating. even to day it is one of a few 5 star+ rated facilities. we kept it open by making it political incorrect to close it. but you can't fight abandonment. one grain of sand at a time. but remember the next time you hear of 22 vet a day killing themselves. there are 50 unused beds in Hot Springs they can't go to.

so it's a nice day I put 20 bucks worth of gas in the 67 we need to use it up some I don't think I have a picture of it in front of building one so took care of that today. went to put it away and missed it by that much. been driving to many short ones.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9111.jpg
    IMG_9111.jpg
    196.3 KB · Views: 226
  • IMG_9112.jpg
    IMG_9112.jpg
    191.9 KB · Views: 218
  • IMG_9114.jpg
    IMG_9114.jpg
    197.7 KB · Views: 217
As soon as the VA figures that out we will get back to caring foe vets. Olso bigger is is not cheaper either. The big thin ib Denver is a prime example.
 
There is a terrible sadness to VA facilities. One here in Cananadagua (s) just completed a new biomass system to lower the cost of running boilers built for coal on gas instead. 11 Million Dollars they're pretty sure they spent, nobody knows the cost between redesign, lawyers, lawsuits and of course Administrators. It's finally ready to go, even has luxurious offices full of furniture still wrapped in plastic. Couple weeks back the TV got tipped off. VA won't even test it to see if it works, because now the price of gas has dropped and it cheaper to buy NG than make their own. Took VA a week to fly a spokesman in to explain that, nobody local was allowed to.
Half of what's left of the hospital is abandoned in place, and they already tore more down.

Go West a couple hours and there is Batavia, trying to find patients enough to keep the doors open and give Sen Bigmouth reasons to keep it open. Pretty complete hospital, but of course any testing or procedures have to be bused to Buffalo, because the doctors are in Buffalo and somebody calculated it's cheaper to move 14 patients than 1 doctor.

In between sits Rochester. VA center moved out of the basement of the downtown Fed Building 25 years back when the politician milking it for microphone time got caught in her lies by some vets and a Hospital PR guy talked on his way out the door. Center was up running and staffed by a teaching hospital in 6 months. A year later they threatened to close it because of insufficient patients since it was beyond the bus routes. Things went along pretty well, then the politician who got caught dirty before decided it needed to be bigger. Translation a friend of hers had some land to get rid of. Right in the middle of a flood plane. Town wouldn't let him build, but they couldn't stop VA. Engineers, Architects telling geniuses someplace what they could have read free in a book, and probably some donations to a campaign fund, and we gonna build a new clinic, away from both hospital and bus routes, convenient to nothing. Politician up and dies. What new VA Center?

I'd like to think there is intelligent life someplace running VA, but I sure don't see any. Probably worse for people working there trying to do the jobs they're paid to do and help vets.

Fellow once pointed out Warriors and Musicians are the same. People only want to see and hear either when they're needed, then they supposed to disappear.
 
I would be amiss to think that this one was the only one caught up in the confusion. we are not as bad as the IHS system but they have been at it longer.
for a long time, VA in a effort to improve themselves created new programs reinventing the wheel and all that came out of it was a new layer of management. my experience as a pt has been positive with the interaction of every one of the workers that's GS11 and down but every time you get involved with employees that's GS12 and above they seam stuck on them selves on how wonderful a job they are doing. some one told me once if you want to fix the Va put the people in charge of the cemetery in charge. they are the only department that works correctly:rolleyes:
 
A question you can perhaps answer; Is there a Veteran hiring preference within VA? I've met a few I am absolutely certain counted used boots in Supply and reconciled Boots/used with Boots issued to build a list of shoe polish needed for a few years climbing the ladder to Staff Sgt.

The comparison with Indian Health System is absolutely valid. The expertise of BIA is the shining star atop the DC Manure Digester/gas plant on Capitol Hill where they continue to labor around the clock to straighten out the Navajo timber trust fund and cut a check to a Navajo. You gotta admire the tenacity of an effort begun in the RayGun years.

BIA labors on under tremendous Budget shortfalls. In the RayGun years they were barely able to spell timber trust fund working with a budget of $37,000+ per Indian.

Then again I perhaps have a jaded view. I worked with a man for 12 years who began life on a Res, watched his father walk down the road to Korea, and spent years finding his father's body only to accomplish that from an orphan prison as he calls it by accidental meeting with a Congressman.

GS-12 is an interesting choice of cutoff. I've operated on the belief 12s exist to position conference tables and align name signs thereon. They also EARN their pay by checking water pitchers and coffee carafes for 16s who must be driven to the meeting because they are in a strange town more than 7 miles from their dwelling. A 12 cannot determine if the needed data is in his package, but if it is there a 12 may not be authorized to admit it publicly.

Are there 13s? I never saw one.
 
veterans are given a 5 point hiring preference as are POW and purple hart an additional 5 in all government services.

found out about the 12 and above being VA emploee's when we combined the two stations as they refused to put a center director in Hot Springs in 96. we had the schmooze the union steak dinner in Deadwood. I was VP, our president at the time said something about supervises being management. he was corrected as only department heads were considered management and a employee everything below was just unwashed masses to be replaces at a whim. we just looked at each other. when it came to karokie we got up and sung 16 tons. they were not amused
 
GS

A question you can perhaps answer; Is there a Veteran hiring preference within VA? I've met a few I am absolutely certain counted used boots in Supply and reconciled Boots/used with Boots issued to build a list of shoe polish needed for a few years climbing the ladder to Staff Sgt.

The comparison with Indian Health System is absolutely valid. The expertise of BIA is the shining star atop the DC Manure Digester/gas plant on Capitol Hill where they continue to labor around the clock to straighten out the Navajo timber trust fund and cut a check to a Navajo. You gotta admire the tenacity of an effort begun in the RayGun years.

BIA labors on under tremendous Budget shortfalls. In the RayGun years they were barely able to spell timber trust fund working with a budget of $37,000+ per Indian.

Then again I perhaps have a jaded view. I worked with a man for 12 years who began life on a Res, watched his father walk down the road to Korea, and spent years finding his father's body only to accomplish that from an orphan prison as he calls it by accidental meeting with a Congressman.

GS-12 is an interesting choice of cutoff. I've operated on the belief 12s exist to position conference tables and align name signs thereon. They also EARN their pay by checking water pitchers and coffee carafes for 16s who must be driven to the meeting because they are in a strange town more than 7 miles from their dwelling. A 12 cannot determine if the needed data is in his package, but if it is there a 12 may not be authorized to admit it publicly.

Are there 13s? I never saw one.

The base salary is based on a table compiled by Office of Personnel Management (the 2017 table is shown below),[4] and is used as the baseline for the locality pay adjustment. The increases between steps for Grades GS-1 and GS-2 varies between the steps; for Grades GS-3 through GS-15 the increases between the steps are the same within the grade, but increase as the grade increases. The table is revised effective January of each year to reflect the basic cost of living adjustment (known as the General Schedule Increase).
 
Back
Top