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.