By Alex Nicoll
Data for wait times and staffing trends for the Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks correspond close to what veterans experienced when they have visited the hospital, two veterans said.
The wait times for primary care and specialty appointments were around two and five days, respectively, according to data released from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Both veterans Fred Buckle and Dustin Thompson said this is fairly accurate compared to what they have experienced.
Buckle, 66, served in the U.S. Army from 1970 to the end of Operation Desert Storm in the early 90s, rising to the rank of staff sergeant, but had not used the Fayetteville VA until about five years ago. He used civilian doctors for the longest time but made the switch when his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder became too much for him to deal with, he said.
The disease cost him his job and his marriage. He even contemplated suicide and almost carried through with it once.
“I would get real agitated, say the wrong thing and then just feel real terrible afterwards,” Buckle said. “I just wasn’t fun to be around.”
It was a wake-up call for him, and the doctors at the Fayetteville VA has helped him through his PTSD, he said.
One thing Buckle would like to see the Fayetteville VA change would be to increase the number of therapists and counselors the hospital employs.
He’s seen different people at the VA for different reasons but has had some of those people switch positions, which meant he could no longer see them, he said.
“There’s just not enough qualified people,” he said.
The only time Buckle has had to wait for longer than a week was when he needed to see a dermatologist, but he chalked the waiting time up to the doctor being very busy, he said.
“I found that I could get in quicker with a dermatologist at the VA because everybody is backed up,” Buckle said about trying to get in with a civilian doctor.
Buckle has also gone to the VA hospitals in Oklahoma City and Little Rock, but the Fayetteville VA has been the best out of the three he said. On a scale of one to 10, Buckle said Fayetteville ranks at a 10 while the other two come in at a seven, he said. The biggest difference among the three was how personable the employees were, he said.
Thompson, 39, served in the U.S. Army for seven years, rising to the rank of an E4 specialist, has been going to the Fayetteville VA hospital for 14 years and has had a “very good experience,” he said.
He agreed that the wait times of around two days for primary care appointments and around five days for specialty care appointments. The problem he has with the VA is not one specific to just Fayetteville, he said. His gripe with the VA is about the policies in place, he said.
“The people are great. It’s the policies they enact that aren’t great,” Thompson said.
Thompson shattered his femur and has a metal rod in his leg now, but when the weather changes, the rod will expand in his leg, which causes pressure on his bones and puts him in agonizing pain, he said.
Doctors would not prescribe him Tramadol or another pain reliever because he is already prescribed Ambien to help him sleep due to his PTSD struggles, he said. There’s “not a chance in hell” that they would prescribe him pain relief medicine, he said.
“I can either sleep or be pain-free, but I can’t be both,” Thompson said.
Unlike Buckle, Thompson said he thought the Fayetteville VA could improve on staffing “every position outside mental health.” Thompson has found that he is able to get ahold of somebody in that department whenever he calls, he said.
Both Buckle and Thompson said the Fayetteville VA does a good job of squeezing patients in that walk into the hospital without a scheduled appointment. Buckle said the walk-in process usually only takes two hours.
“They’ll work you in if you can,” Buckle said.
Fred Buckle
Fred Buckle
479-466-7704, fbmcager1@gmail.com, 19111 Silver Spur Rd. Springdale, AR, 72764
Dustin Thompson
479-841-0545, dualhaka@gmail.com, 1416, Overo Circle Springdale, AR, 72762
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