I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you. I also wanted to take a moment and acknowledge its the time of year when we think about our p. O. W. And m. I. A. Veterans and i dont know if we have any former p. O. W. S were family members here in the audience . Do they want to stand . Thank you. We will keep them in our thoughts. I am glenn cortie. For those of you that know me i am glenn cortie director of the dayton ohio va and i was asked to come to phoenix to help out for four months. I arrived july 9 and at the end of my two or will be the sixth of november. I was honored to be ousting tom to help lead the organization as we continue to move forward here in phoenix. I wanted to also thank our veterans that came out tonight. This is an important way for us to receive feedback and hear good things that we are doing as well as things that we need to do better and we are excited to hear your feedback. I also wanted to thank the family members who support you and we know its a labor of love to work with helping our veterans. I also want to thank our stakeholders because it does take a community of folks to work with all the needs we have for veterans and there are many things the va does but theyre also things that be a cando and we have a nice partnership here in phoenix with many of our stakeholders. I just want to thank them for their support. Today was an example where we were briefing our congressional delegation and congresswoman office was showing us to wonder veterans resource guide that they have developed in partnership with the va and other organizations in the community to list all of the benefits that are available for veterans. Those that are offered by the va, offered by the state, offered by the city and other nonprofits so a very nice resource you should ask the congresswomans office for her and she will make sure you get a copy. We also invited folks from the other parts of the va here and i believe we have folks from the benefits office. The young lady here in the back. If you have any benefits questions, we are going to be having her try to address them either as a group of response or individually if you have those kinds of questions and also the National Cemetery administration or service for those that honor veterans upon their death. Anybody here from maghreb . That group . We thought wed have them here if we have any questions about honoring veterans at their death. I wanted to give you an update on things that have been going on here at the Medical Center and we will open it up for some questions and feedback. First of all is important for everybody to know that the access issues remain in a fixed condition. I dont know thats a right way to say that but basically we have solved the access problem and now we have provided the resources we need to assure we are properly using the scheduling packages and the electronic wait list. So far over 7000 veterans have been contacted to want the care of the va in phoenix and we have been able to get them schedule then. We also have been working very hard on recommendations from the office of Inspector General and of the 13 recommendations that were specific to phoenix, 10 have been corrected and were submitted in documentation to the ig to support removing those conditions from the report. I also wanted to make sure that everybody knew about the appendix k in the report. The igs report, that document is a response in writing to many of the concerns raised in the report. Theres a lot of information about what phoenix has done in response to those findings. Also this week here in washington providing chairman millers House Veterans Affairs committees information about the ig report and there was almost six hours of testimony which was really unprecedented and a lot of good information was shared with the hvac committee so i wanted to make sure the folks took the time to take a look at that on cspan. Also our secretary mcdonald is working on a plan that he is going to be rolling out on veterans day. Hes calling it the road to veterans day and every couple of weeks there are more and more initiatives that he is showcasing but we are all expecting to see a wonderful announcement of some good programs that he will be implementing on veterans day. We are also working on the veterans choice act that and we had a briefing on that this week. We are looking at early november probably around veterans day to be announcing some actions with that as far as how you use the ad in the choice cards and things of that nature. Secretary mcdonald has also emphasizing a recommitment of all va employees do i care. That stands for integrity commitment advocacy respect respect and excellence and we are personally recommitting ourselves to those values and trying to live that everyday here at phoenix. Locally we have got some actions that will be happening in the fall. One will be the beginning of a Valet Parking system that we will have your november. This will help with a lot with the issue parking on campus and allow you to drop your car off have it kept safe for you and be delivered to you at the end of your visit. We also have a construction project thats going to begin, parking garage and that will begin in the fall as well and we are trying to these Parking Spaces in the community to help with that transition. Hopefully we will have some remediation here. We also are working in the community on Additional Space for primary care. We hope to sign the interim this month a lease in the scottsdale area, about a 70,000 squarefoot building there that we are working hard on. We also have two other leases in the phoenix area totaling 50,000 square feet and in the First Quarter of this coming fiscal year and we have opened him up in the spring and summer. We also have been the choice act of very Large Health Care center a 300,000 squarefoot health care center. There will be completed in probably 2019. In the meantime we wanted to try to move on some of these smaller leases to provide some help for the states problems that we are having here. We also made progress on hiring additional providers for a patient care teams. Thats our primary care area. We now have for the first time in phoenix all of our primary care teams are staffed up and we have six additional teams that we have commitments for and arrival dates for positions positions that will be staffing a group as well so we are really doing a nice job with staffing areas for the area to provide the teams that we need to take care of our veterans. Finally there has been a lot of concern about our Staffing Levels at our Outpatient Clinic and we are taking care of covering that clinic with providers we are sending from phoenix up to show low. We are using our telemedicine programs to provide support. We have one provider that has a commitment to start working there and also looking at other Nurse Practitioners to come to show low so we are making sure we are covering the veterans needs. There was a rumor about closing that clinic and i want to make sure everyone knows the clinic is open and we are staffing it appropriately. I also wanted to make sure everyone saw these comic cards. Cards. Ent these are very helpful for me as i try to move the organization for it. I know some people are not comfortable getting in front of the audience and talking about issues i wanted to offer an opportunity to give feedback and we will find a way to respond to directly to get your Contact Information about concerns you have or use them as a way of gauging the general feel of the needs that you all have as veterans. I want to turn it over to my acting Public Affairs officer to talk about some of the ground rules for todays session and then we will open it up for you to give us some feedback. Good evening. I am the acting Public Affairs officer at the phoenix va Medical Center. Just a few ground rules. It will be short simple and sweet. We have two microphones set up here. We would like folks to step up to the microphone. In the interest of time try to make statements as concise as possible. We will take comments and answers if we can get them tonight and if not we will be getting the answers to you as soon as we can so the process will be one question from the left and one question from the right and we will see what we can do to get through this evening. Any questions for me at this point or step up to the microphone. Yes, sir. [inaudible] usually what happens is we have to set some sort of a time in a meeting. We are not restricted to an hour. As mr. Cortie mentioned the good news is in the future these will be a regular recurring quarterly meeting at this facility throughout the va so some of the folks are starting to line up and we will start with questions. Yes sir. Let me say thank you for your efforts. I am sure everyone appreciates an honest effort here and there. My concern is i have been misdiagnosed. I have waited long time to tell mine and ill bet im telling some of your stories. Ive been misdiagnosed many times in the years in and this hospital that almost resulted in my death. I am facing a situation right now where for at least two years they have diagnosed me as having pneumonia. All at once they say, oh, we are going to look closer. After two years of this, oh you have endstage cancer. I try to address this by going to the Cancer Center of america. There are doctors here are behind the times. Their cancer doctors are so far behind they are not aware of a corporation called t. Jan which is a Genetic Research for cancer treatment. When i asked about these new treatments, the oncology doctors here laughed at me and said thats all garbage. I need, in my opinion i would like to meet very much at this critical time in my life right now, not next week, right now, i need a referral to the Cancer Center of america and anyone who is facing a situation like mine needs the same kind of referral. We dont have time. Their motto around this hospital is okay i have a carotid artery thats narrowed. What do they do . We need to watch that. They havent looked at it for five years. I have an aneurysm in my stomach. What are we going to do about it guys . We are going to watch that. So years and years of misdiagnosed and inadequate treatment has led me to this position right here tonight. I am darned angry. I am darned angry and i would like a referral tonight. Cancer Treatment Center of america has given me phone numbers and contacts that they said they would be more than willing to negotiate some kind of an agreement with the va. I have those numbers. Does anyone hear me . Thank you. [applause] i dont know if i got your name but we need to get your Contact Information so we can get with you and try to help you. If i could have one of the staff have you got that there are . That would be great. Thank you, sir. Also on hand tonight we have a couple of our Patient Advocates and social workers that could help some of you discuss some of the care, your personal care, your family members care. That is what the advocate does, cover stuff up. Those folks are in the topaz clinic so if you would like to speak to a patient advocate or a social worker this evening we can arrange for that. We will go to the next question here. Yes, sir. Good evening, sir. I am an army veteran. I have a problem with the va on outsourcing. As you can see i have had neck surgery about a month and a half ago but it took a sixmonth wait to get that surgery with excruciating pain and many visits to our doctor. I went through this on july 28 and im having complications on my left side, the same things i have on my right. I saw my surgeon that was outsourced to good sam just on tuesday and he ordered a c. A. T. Scan with contrast so i started checking on this yesterday and today. My pcp doesnt have it. Fee basis doesnt matter. I called back to the doctors office. They said its in the Processing Center and they have up to 14 days to process it. I asked, why . For insurance verification and everything else. I said im outsourced from the va. Its a guaranteed payment. I cant give it to you so theyll have to wait. I go to the patient advocate. They could not do anything outside the va im told. The va outsourced me so if i have problems with being outsourced to another doctor or another hospital that va ought to be backing me up. I should not be the one running back and forth from the va to this outsourced doctor for medications or anything else. I shouldnt be doing the legwork. Our feebased section has 30 given unsatisfactory about triwest. I was scheduled to go to barrels in the beginning and had everything set up but that rug was pulled out from under date me when i was told i had to go to triwest. So the choice of where we want to go as veterans is not there for us. Its not there. This outsourcing problem needs to be addressed and we need to be backed up. I agree with you. We have put the veteran in the middle of it rather than be an advocate for you. It should be onestop shopping. It should be one call to the va and thats it instead of having it do all the legwork. Is going through triwest and the doctor is going to be outsourced from and youre sitting there and all you have to tear coming out of your eyes because you are in so much pain. I will admit and im proud of it that i may employee of the va. Thank you, sir. [applause] i am Steven Robert shakopee sr. And im madder than hell. I asked for a biopsy for 18 months. It took my wife threatening a Nurse Practitioner with legal action to get that biopsy. Your Urology Department tried to force treatment down my throat that would have killed me. The whole 18 months they treated me with antibiotics, high doses which gave me other Health Problems and they dont want to take care of it. They didnt want to pay the bill at the mayo for the right type of procedure for my cancer. I had a heart attack. I waited 45 minutes on the phone for somebody to answer. They said call an ambulance. We will take care of it. They still havent paid the bill. That was in 2010 and im madder than hell. I have another question. The Urology Department as it was were they taking kickbacks from radiation in chandler . I have had six people that have the same problem as me. Also, why is Sharon Hellman still earning six figures on paid administrative leave . Isnt it time to stop the clock . [applause] stop the clock. Thats all i have to say. [applause] do you think you can follow that . I dont think i can follow that. My name is jake. On november 17, 2011 i came here to have my right rotator cuff repaired. During the procedure a surgeon encountered a solid tumor that he wasnt expecting to find. Without my knowledge or consent he removed the entire tumor in one piece without first performing a biopsy. A tumor turned out to be benign meaning it didnt need to come out. Unfortunately when he removed the tumor he caused a severe injury to my axillary nerve which prevents me now from lifting my right arm. After the procedure, the surgeon refused to acknowledge the injury. He refused to order any test and he refused to make any referrals. I saw three nerve repair specialists outside the va at my own expense and they all agreed that the injury could not be repaired. We sent the slides of the tumor to ucla were where the chief of pathology found the nerve embedded in the tumor. This injury destroyed my own career as an orthopedic spine surgeon. I filed a claim for economic damages but your Regional Council sat on my claim for six months and then sent me a denial letter telling me that my current disability is my own fault. I then filed a lawsuit under the federal tort claims act and the assistant u. S. Attorney who was assigned to defend the va has done nothing but attack me personally and professionally for the past year. Meanwhile, the surgeon who did this has escaped scrutiny. At the time of my surgery he was a parttime employee working here one day a week. Earlier this year the va rewarded him with a fulltime job. So i have two questions for you. First, what are you doing about the inadequate care of this facility . Wait times mean nothing if the person you are going to see is going to maim or kill you and second [applause] second, what are you doing about the process that veterans have to go through when they are injured at the va because congress did not pass the federal tort claims act so that veterans who are injured at va hospitals can be further victimized by your Regional Council and members of the u. S. Attorneys office. Thank you. [applause] i dont think i can do better than that. I have a situation here that kind of blends between here and claims. I have been bounced back and forth. Turn up the volume, will you . I hate this thing. Is it on . Its got to be. Anyhow i have been bounced back and forth. I came in here, i came in here to the facility with a claim form and i dont want to get anybody in trouble here. Its not my intent to get anybody in trouble but i have been bounced back and forth between the hospital here and barrow neurological and all i keep doing is getting nowhere and they keep coming back. They want to have a test. No, we are not sure, we have to have a test. The last test i got, i happened to look it up and what does it do . It does nothing. How much did it cost the va . How much did it cost everybody here . It cost everybody here a shot in my arm of 3000. Radioactive iodine. What happened was that shot . On the nod note for me to get that shot, i was informed that i am claustrophobic and i cannot lay down for a halfhour or 45 minutes motionless on the table. I need a sedative. Guess what . Nobody signed the thing. Where do you think that 3000 shot went . Right down the toilet and where am i . Right down the toilet with it because im no closer to getting my claim satisfied. I want to have if its possible get a referral out of the situation to mayo clinic. Im tired of bouncing around between h