1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,640 All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio. 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:15,920 This is Veterans Radio. 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:17,840 Welcome to Veterans Radio. 4 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,520 I am Jim Fossone. 5 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:22,840 I'm the officer of the deck today. 6 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:24,720 We've got some great programs for you. 7 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:29,520 We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook 8 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:35,240 site or at the web veteransradio.org where we're on the web 24-7. 9 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:38,360 You can find a lot of our podcasts there as well. 10 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:45,040 We post new ones every Tuesday so you can get a new story, a new interview, something 11 00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:49,600 you didn't know before by going to veteransradio.org. 12 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,040 And before we get started, we want to thank our sponsors. 13 00:00:53,040 --> 00:01:00,880 Next up we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org. 14 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:06,560 It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses. 15 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:13,080 You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org. 16 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,600 We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans. 17 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:22,120 Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation. 18 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:33,240 You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at legalhelpforveterans.com. 19 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,040 And finally, PuroClean. 20 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,680 PuroClean is the paramedics of property damage. 21 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:44,560 It provides water damage remediation, flood water removal, fire and smoke damage remediation, 22 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:48,000 mold removal, biohazard cleanup. 23 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,280 It also has a focus on veteran franchisees. 24 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:57,000 You can learn more about them by going to puroclean.com. 25 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:02,400 We want to welcome back to Veterans Radio today the Executive Director of the Detroit 26 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:09,320 VA Medical Center, the John D. Dingell Medical Center in Detroit, Chris Cawley. 27 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:12,240 Chris, welcome back to Veterans Radio. 28 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:18,520 Hello, Jim, it's good to be back, it's been about a year since we last talked. 29 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:24,640 It has, we had a chance to talk, go maybe six months into your term as the initially 30 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:30,720 acting director and then the permanent director of the Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit. 31 00:02:30,720 --> 00:02:33,240 So I thought it was time to let's catch back up. 32 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:40,440 There was a lot that had to be tweaked at the Detroit VMA-C and you've been doing that. 33 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:46,880 One of the things we talked about last time was the staffing challenges in providing services 34 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:49,680 to our veterans at the hospital. 35 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:51,680 Tell us about your staffing situation. 36 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:53,360 Yeah, sure. 37 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:57,200 So we have, we've continued to increase staffing. 38 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:05,040 So I think what I told you at that time, we've brought on maybe about 400 additional staff. 39 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:11,720 You know, that is coming in line now with the, what we call the complexity level of the facilities. 40 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:19,360 We are a 1B facility and Arbor is also a 1B facility, but we were way behind when it came 41 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:21,240 to staffing on that. 42 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:25,320 So now that we're up to that level, we're starting to get closer, inching closer. 43 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:27,960 Of course, we're adding a lot more services. 44 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:33,000 So with that, of course, we need more staffing and not only just more doctors and nurses, 45 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:34,960 you need the ancillary staff with that. 46 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:36,560 You do need housekeepers. 47 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:42,200 When you open 30 beds, we opened 30 beds this past year. 48 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:43,720 You need the ancillary staff. 49 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:46,600 You need the housekeepers to take care of it. 50 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:49,160 You need additional dietetics. 51 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:53,440 You need more cooks cooking the food. 52 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:57,440 You need more administrative support staff. 53 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:03,160 It's just, you know, you can't just hire a nurse and go on from there. 54 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:05,840 It requires a whole team and that's what we've done. 55 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:10,920 Well, the mere fact that you're opening more beds, 30 more beds, which sounds like a big 56 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:18,560 number to me, must indicate that the population you're serving that you've been doing outreach 57 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:22,240 to is responding. 58 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:23,240 It is. 59 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:30,120 So I will tell you that our enrollment has increased 20% over the past year. 60 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:36,080 Our unique, our unique is what's considered a single social security number or a veteran, 61 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,400 if you will, has increased almost 6%. 62 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:41,400 That is amazing. 63 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:49,560 In a time when the veteran population is decreasing, we've increased close to 6%. 64 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:55,480 Now a lot of that has to do with the PAC Act, which is what it was intended for. 65 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:57,800 And we're taking full advantage of that. 66 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:03,040 So veterans are coming in, they're getting screened for toxic exposure, realizing that, 67 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:08,320 hey, there's a lot here in the VA that can be provided, a lot more benefits that they 68 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:10,080 weren't aware of. 69 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,320 And so, yeah, our uniques have increased. 70 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:16,560 Our workload has increased 16%. 71 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:19,440 You know, that's number one in our network. 72 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:27,120 Our network consists of 11 facilities all in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. 73 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,880 We ranked number one this year in increased workload. 74 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,720 And we're very, very excited about that, very proud of our staff. 75 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:39,400 Well, as well as you should be, because they've taken on a lot, as you say, the PAC Act has 76 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:46,000 brought a lot of new people into VA looking for an understanding of what's available 77 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:49,520 to them from a healthcare perspective. 78 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:52,080 But again, you've got to have the staff to do that. 79 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:56,000 Are you at 80% staffing needs at the moment? 80 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:57,000 100%? 81 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:02,200 Where are you in your continuum of, and I realize you're always battling the staff issue, but 82 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:04,680 kind of, kind of where are you? 83 00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:08,960 Well, to be honest with you, I think we're at 100%, right? 84 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:14,920 So I think we brought on the right amount of staff to get where we needed to go. 85 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:22,960 Now, with that said, though, we have 100, and as of today, 134 active recruitments. 86 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:26,560 So you're going to ask, well, wait, I mean, if you think you're at 100%, but yet you still 87 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:29,960 have 134 recruitments out there. 88 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:34,880 That's the normal churn for a facility of about 2,400 employees. 89 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:40,080 You got to have 100 to 200 in the queue, because you're going to have retirements. 90 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:45,160 You're going to have folks that quit or transfer or for whatever reason, but you got to have 91 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,920 that churn, that pipeline full so that you continue. 92 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:53,400 If you don't have that, if I say, look, we're good at 2,400, and we're going to stop here 93 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:54,640 and no more recruitments. 94 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:59,240 Jim, it's not going to be three months later, all of a sudden, you're going to be behind. 95 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:01,080 So you always got to be ahead. 96 00:07:01,080 --> 00:07:02,800 You got to have a little bit in the queue. 97 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:09,760 Yeah, your service chiefs would be screaming at you if you don't address that. 98 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:16,200 And one of the things that more staffing and people who are really committed to the mission, 99 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:23,440 one of the things that does for a medical center like the John D. Dingell is impacts 100 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:28,640 customer service and satisfaction. 101 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:31,520 Tell us a little bit about what you've seen over the last year. 102 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:36,840 So Jim, I've seen a great increase in our trust score. 103 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:39,280 It's something that we measure. 104 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:44,680 We do surveys of our veterans, and we're seeing a lot more positive comments that we have 105 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:45,680 in the past. 106 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:52,120 We've had comments that come back and just said, point blank, the Dingell VA is different 107 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:54,240 than it was two years ago. 108 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:56,520 As simple as that. 109 00:07:56,520 --> 00:08:00,800 I have some secret shoppers that originally came in. 110 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:04,880 Yeah, they've come in complaining going, you know what, that was the worst treatment 111 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:06,520 I've ever had. 112 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:07,520 Customer service was poor. 113 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,520 And I said, well, that's, well, it didn't help me with that. 114 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:12,800 And they kind of looked at me like, what are you talking about? 115 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:14,520 What helped me? 116 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:16,080 I want you to be a secret shopper. 117 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,280 I want you to come back and report all these incidents. 118 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:23,480 And I'm asking you to tattle on anybody, but I mean, keep me posted. 119 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:24,960 I'm trying to keep my ears to the ground. 120 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:27,120 I can't see it all. 121 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:30,160 But with that, what I'm going to tell you, what I'm going to do is I'm going to start 122 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,280 a new customer service training program. 123 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:38,200 And I need somebody to say, hey, I'm starting to see some improvement or not. 124 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:42,000 Or say, I don't know what kind of training you're provided, but it's not clicking. 125 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,800 I need that boots on the ground to tell me that. 126 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:50,960 I've got about three or four of these folks anywhere from, they mainly go to primary care, 127 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:58,400 some in specialty care, some in, for instance, audiology or optometry, things of that nature. 128 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:02,280 And they're coming back and they're saying, Chris, I'm seeing a difference, right? 129 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:05,760 And the main difference, and it hasn't been with the providers. 130 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:10,920 The providers, I think, have always been top notch and they've gotten good care from them. 131 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,120 It was that front line. 132 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:19,280 It was that you walk up to the counter and when that person looks up at you and they're 133 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:23,280 holding their phone and they look up at you like, ah. 134 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:24,280 You're bothering me. 135 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:25,280 You're bothering me. 136 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:26,280 Yeah. 137 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:27,280 You're bothering me. 138 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:28,280 What do you want? 139 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:29,280 We've witnessed that. 140 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:30,280 I witnessed it myself, Jim. 141 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:32,360 I don't know if I shared this last time. 142 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:35,880 When I was new here, nobody knew who I was. 143 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:39,760 I had the ability to walk around and kind of see these things. 144 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,040 I witnessed it firsthand. 145 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:49,520 So we had a couple of come to Jesus meetings and it's really just, it's not so much scolding 146 00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:50,680 people, right? 147 00:09:50,680 --> 00:09:52,280 It's getting them on the mission. 148 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,800 This is the best job in the world. 149 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,800 Where else can you serve our country's heroes? 150 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:01,760 I mean, you have a mission to give back. 151 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:02,760 Yeah. 152 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:03,760 What they've done for you. 153 00:10:03,760 --> 00:10:04,760 Yeah. 154 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:08,800 Yeah, it's easy for the front line folks to get jaded by negative comments and things. 155 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:15,000 So you kind of always have to be pumping that up and we're talking to the director of the 156 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:17,720 Detroit VMAC. 157 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:23,200 Chris Cawley has been with the VA for about 30 years. 158 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:29,920 He's held a variety of roles starting down in Illinois, Denville, Illinois, over in Saginaw 159 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:31,880 and in Arbor. 160 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:34,400 And now has his own show to run. 161 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:41,120 A pretty big show that is, he has a bachelor's degree from University of Illinois, a master's 162 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:44,080 degree in health administration from Independence University. 163 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:47,720 He's a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. 164 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:55,680 So a lot of experience, a lot of education and lining him up for this job. 165 00:10:55,680 --> 00:11:02,840 And part of a better customer satisfaction also resulted in a CMS rating for the first 166 00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:05,560 time for the medical center. 167 00:11:05,560 --> 00:11:08,600 Tell us a little bit about that. 168 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:11,720 Well Jim, I bragged about this, right? 169 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,800 You know, we're a four star CMS rating and I'm going to be quite honest with you and 170 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:17,440 very transparent. 171 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:19,840 We dropped, we dropped to a three star. 172 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,920 And I'm going to tell you exactly why. 173 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:28,080 It was our readmissions due to pneumonia. 174 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:32,440 And when we were told we're going to drop to a three star, we drilled down and said, 175 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:35,400 like, I don't understand, where did we drop? 176 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:39,080 Because everything I'm seeing shows improvement. 177 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:46,280 However, the way the CMS standards work, and especially this particular standard or metric 178 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:53,920 readmission due to pneumonia, is a three year rolling metric. 179 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:55,760 So it caught up with this. 180 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:59,960 Even though I looked at it now and said, I don't understand, we are improving. 181 00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:03,640 Three years ago is when it was not good. 182 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:08,200 And by the time the standards came out, that's when it hit us this year. 183 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:11,040 That's a gut buster there, Jim. 184 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:15,280 Yeah, but at the same time, it focuses everybody, right? 185 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:19,400 It gets everybody focused on, we're going to get ourselves back to where we want to 186 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:22,640 be and we know what we have to tackle. 187 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:26,840 So outside ratings and reviews, they can be helpful. 188 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:31,120 Well, yeah, well, hey, I've got this book on my shelf. 189 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:34,440 It's called a complaint is a gift. 190 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:36,520 And it goes, and it's this way too, right? 191 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:41,720 So if we have an accrediting body that comes in or CMS, whatever, and says, hey, we're 192 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:43,080 going to drop your rating. 193 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:47,640 Well, I mean, not necessarily thank you, but okay, then why? 194 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:49,160 Let's drill down on it. 195 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:54,400 And we did, we circled back and we know that we're going to go to a four star next year. 196 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:59,160 We've already done the calculations and said, look, you've already passed what it takes 197 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:00,640 to get to that four star. 198 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:05,320 In our strategic plan, we actually plan to go to a five star. 199 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:07,320 And I think that's very doable. 200 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:13,720 Well, certainly that's what the men and women who are being serviced by the VA hospital 201 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:15,640 in Detroit really deserve. 202 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:18,400 And I know under your leadership, they're working that way. 203 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:26,760 And speaking of women, what's new in women's health care that the Dingle Center is focusing 204 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:27,760 on? 205 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:31,640 Well, we got to get more women in. 206 00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:36,960 We're actually, I just met with our marketing group today in our strategic planning. 207 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:45,600 And there are well over 600 women veterans who are not enrolled that are in our catchment 208 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:52,480 area or our immediate area, whole catchment area, just within 30 minutes of our facility 209 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:54,600 that we really need to market. 210 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:56,680 And we're providing more care. 211 00:13:56,680 --> 00:13:59,160 We have a dedicated women's clinic. 212 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:05,720 And we also have on the horizon a new construction or renovation of our women's clinic. 213 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:07,920 Now we have to do some dominoes have to fall. 214 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:12,480 We got some other projects have to happen in order for them to be able to move. 215 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:14,720 But that I'm really looking forward to that. 216 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:19,800 Well, that is an underserved segment of the veteran population. 217 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:24,760 And it's good that Detroit is focusing in on that. 218 00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:33,000 And I'm sure the folks will show up when they see it for themselves and hear good things. 219 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,560 Whenever you do something new, it takes a little while to catch on. 220 00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:40,560 One of the things that really has caught on for the VA over the last few years, probably 221 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:45,320 since now it's four years, maybe since COVID is telemedicine. 222 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:51,240 How is telemedicine impacting the work that's being performed down at the Dingell VA Medical 223 00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:52,240 Center? 224 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:57,440 Yeah, Jim, it's something we're really focusing on because it's very helpful. 225 00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:00,880 You know, I don't want folks to think that, oh, it's a telemedicine. 226 00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:07,560 It's a, you know, video visit that I'm going to get less quality quality of care on this. 227 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:08,560 No. 228 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:11,240 It's proven and that it works. 229 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:16,160 And at least to get that first visit and at least get that first contact. 230 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:20,560 So what we're really reaching out to is putting this in our outpatient clinics, right? 231 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:25,160 So yeah, I talked about Down River, which I talk about more in a minute. 232 00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:32,440 And in Pontiac, getting what we call CCTV out there. 233 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:37,840 So the veterans will still get care face to face, but they don't have to come all the 234 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:39,880 way down to Detroit. 235 00:15:39,880 --> 00:15:42,080 That's just another version of it. 236 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:43,760 Of course, they can get care in their home. 237 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:48,360 They can sit back and dial up and get that care. 238 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:53,720 One I would like to push is our teleurgent care. 239 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:54,720 This is huge. 240 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:59,600 And this is something that we just started probably in the last six months. 241 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:06,560 We see a lot, a ton of veterans that are going to urgent cares and emergency departments 242 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:09,240 out in the community. 243 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:10,720 And they really didn't need to. 244 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:16,160 And a lot of them are leading to admissions in the community that really don't need to 245 00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:17,360 as well. 246 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:23,520 But if you call this number and Jimmy, you got me on the line here and I don't have that 247 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:27,480 number to share with you, but I will provide it to you off the top of my head. 248 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:29,400 I don't have it in front of me. 249 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:37,760 But if you call the tele EC number, it is a video visit and they can guide you. 250 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:40,080 So yeah, this is something probably more serious. 251 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:44,760 You should probably go to the emergency department or yeah, you know what? 252 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:46,760 You've got the symptoms for X, Y and Z. 253 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:47,760 You know what? 254 00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:53,000 I'm going to write you a prescription and then let's follow up in the next 24 hours. 255 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:57,120 Or you have come down to our urgent care or fast track and we can certainly take care 256 00:16:57,120 --> 00:16:58,120 of you. 257 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:00,080 It really has. 258 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:05,960 I think the public has just adopted telemedicine as I say a little bit is was the good thing 259 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:08,280 came coming out of COVID. 260 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:16,280 But it's really impactful and my wife is a veteran and uses the VA for health care and 261 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:25,160 finds the tele visits very helpful and sometimes easier to get scheduled for just a quick checkup. 262 00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:29,200 Just hey, how you doing is that medicine doing what you thought it was going to do or hey, 263 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:31,000 I'm having this issue with the medicine. 264 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:32,000 What am I doing wrong? 265 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,840 No, I'm taking it on an empty stomach or a full stomach. 266 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:36,400 What am I supposed to be doing? 267 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:41,640 But telemedicine is really something I think veterans and the VA have adopted. 268 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:46,600 So I'm glad to hear about this new idea of teleurgent care. 269 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:52,960 Are all VA hospitals adopting this or is this something that you're piloting and others 270 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:55,320 are watching how it goes? 271 00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,360 Yeah, so we've actually partnered with the within our network. 272 00:17:59,360 --> 00:18:02,760 I talked about the three states. 273 00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:07,920 We partnered with Ann Arbor was the very first ones and we said, let's get together and we 274 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:13,600 will provide we provided a dedicated physician to do this and Arbor did the same and then 275 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:17,400 it expanded to our entire network. 276 00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:23,080 Not all facilities in the country are doing this, but I think it is an expectation going 277 00:18:23,080 --> 00:18:24,480 forward. 278 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:30,640 We were pilots and they have seen shown that it does work, that it does help the veterans 279 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:35,680 stay out of emergency departments that are not needed. 280 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:40,840 And I think that's expectation going forward is that all VA's need to go forward with this. 281 00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:45,360 Well, you mentioned outpatient clinic and I wanted to give you a chance to talk about 282 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:50,920 the downriver clinic a little bit in Trenton and just what that whole concept of these 283 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:53,720 community based clinics is about. 284 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:56,240 Yeah, straightforward. 285 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:59,120 It is getting care closer to home. 286 00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:04,480 These are as what we have right now, it's primary care and mental health and lab, at 287 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:09,520 least in Trenton and downriver, which opened in June of this year. 288 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:12,240 It's getting care closer to home. 289 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:19,320 Who needs to fight all this traffic if you're in the Trenton area, come all the way downtown 290 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:24,000 Detroit to your primary care provider to get your blood pressure taken, which is probably 291 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,840 through the roof now after going through all that traffic. 292 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:29,280 And finding a place to park. 293 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,360 Hey, I've got some updates on that too, man. 294 00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:33,360 Okay. 295 00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:34,360 Yeah. 296 00:19:34,360 --> 00:19:41,880 And so we're putting these outpatient clinics out there, so they can get that primary care 297 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:43,600 and mental health closer out there. 298 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:50,680 And so we opened Trenton in June of this year in Pontiac. 299 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:54,160 We've always had the Pontiac clinic, but we just expanded it. 300 00:19:54,160 --> 00:20:01,440 And this just occurred in October where we've added, we're adding X-ray and ultrasound to 301 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:02,520 Pontiac. 302 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,680 We expanded our audiology in Pontiac. 303 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:10,160 We also expanded our physical therapy and occupational therapy out there and we're looking 304 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:13,000 to add chiropractor services also. 305 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:20,120 So some of these outpatient clinics will start adding specialty services to them as well. 306 00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:25,960 On top of that though, I do want to add we anticipate getting an award for a new yet 307 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:32,760 another outpatient clinic in Northwest Detroit, probably around the Southfield area. 308 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,440 That should be awarded by the end of this calendar year. 309 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:38,880 That's what I've been promised. 310 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:45,120 So we're looking at about July of next year of opening another clinic in that area as 311 00:20:45,120 --> 00:20:46,600 well. 312 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:52,040 On the hills of that, we do have approval to open a clinic in McComb County. 313 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:55,280 That's a big catchment area that's underserved. 314 00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:57,720 We really need to get some services out there. 315 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:03,120 So that has been approved through our governing structure. 316 00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:07,000 It still has to go out for award through contracting. 317 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:11,360 And we need to find a place to settle in on a clinic on that one. 318 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:13,440 So very, very excited about that. 319 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:20,040 Yeah, these new clinics in the community are really important and used a lot from what 320 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:23,200 I'm tracking and people. 321 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,840 One of the things they won't have to do is fight parking or traffic generally. 322 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:32,920 So go ahead and expand on what you're doing on parking down in the main campus. 323 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:34,080 All right. 324 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:40,880 So as you know, as you come in for parking, you go into the blue parking structure. 325 00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:41,880 We brought on what? 326 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,680 Four or 500 new employees, they got to park somewhere as well, right? 327 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:51,360 So we were putting those employees up on the fourth and fifth floor of the blue parking 328 00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:52,360 structure. 329 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:54,880 Man, we started running out of room. 330 00:21:54,880 --> 00:22:00,360 And at the end of the day, the veterans, the caregivers, spouses, visitors were not able 331 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:01,960 to find parking spaces. 332 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:04,240 And so that's a big alarm for us. 333 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:10,200 So we leased a spot down the road for employees to park. 334 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:14,680 And it was a little bit down the road, I think by Aldi's. 335 00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:16,160 And that wasn't enough. 336 00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:22,320 And so just here recently in the last three months, we leased parking directly across 337 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:25,160 the street from the Detroit VA. 338 00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:30,640 There's an apartment building with a parking structure and it looked empty all the time. 339 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:34,520 So we approached them and actually agreed on a contract. 340 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:41,240 We moved close to 100 vehicles out of the blue parking structure. 341 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,120 And that included government vehicles. 342 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:46,280 We had government vehicles parked in there as well. 343 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:49,000 I said that now, you got to get those out also. 344 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:54,360 So we cleared up close to 100 spots in that parking structure. 345 00:22:54,360 --> 00:22:56,480 So pretty excited about that. 346 00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:04,240 You really got to be creative on finding solutions sometimes, and particularly when the challenges 347 00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:07,320 are generated by your successes, right? 348 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,280 Jeez, we've hired all these people. 349 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:11,040 We're drawing more people in. 350 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:13,960 Well, what's the domino effect of that? 351 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:19,040 So that's interesting that you had to go address the parking in a unique way. 352 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:24,200 So yeah, it's not a bad problem to have. 353 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,720 It's as a result of success, so those are good things. 354 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:31,600 I did read and I wanted to talk a little bit because I think this would surprise a lot 355 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:33,600 of people. 356 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:44,120 I did read that these Dingle Centers using robot-assisted medical devices to work with 357 00:23:44,120 --> 00:23:45,120 hip replacements. 358 00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:47,640 That's pretty cool cutting-edge stuff. 359 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:49,400 Tell us about it. 360 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:50,400 It is cool. 361 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:55,760 So this year, we purchased what's called a Mako robotic surgery. 362 00:23:55,760 --> 00:24:01,280 Now you've probably heard about the DaVinci robotic surgery, which by the way, the Detroit 363 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:08,680 VA ranked seventh in the VA's in the country for the highest number of DaVinci surgeries. 364 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,600 A lot of GI procedures, things of that nature. 365 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,520 So we've been really kicking them out through that. 366 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:20,880 But the Mako orthopedic robotic surgery, we were the first in our network to do that. 367 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:30,640 Yes, doing hip procedures and knees, less invasive in and out, outpatient procedures, 368 00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,560 less scarring, get your mobility back a lot quicker. 369 00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:37,680 So yeah, super excited about that. 370 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:42,080 Very interesting, as I say, unless you're paying attention to stuff and you're just 371 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:48,720 otherwise a veteran needing some health care, you may not think the sophistication is going 372 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:57,800 to be there at a VA hospital, but indeed it's a very sophisticated medical center in Detroit. 373 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,440 Yeah, we're on the cutting edge. 374 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:07,920 And I would like to say, last week, we had the National Cardiology Program on site and 375 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,800 they gave us approval to expand our cardiology program. 376 00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:15,880 We're going to be expanding our EP or electrophysiology program. 377 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:20,600 What this means is the Detroit VA is going to start doing cardiac implants. 378 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:25,800 All right, we're going to be doing pacemakers and defibrillators, device implants. 379 00:25:25,800 --> 00:25:27,320 Never done that before. 380 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:29,600 And that is super exciting as well. 381 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:36,840 That's something that is a long time coming and there's a big market out there. 382 00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:38,800 A lot of veterans need that. 383 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:47,280 And in addition to that, I think you had mentioned it earlier just today, we had the dedication 384 00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,080 of our Fisher House. 385 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:54,120 And for the folks who don't know what a Fisher House is, Jim, I know you know, and we talked 386 00:25:54,120 --> 00:26:00,640 about this, but the Fisher House is really the VA's version of the Ronald McDonald House. 387 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:07,600 And we just dedicated ours today, brand new construction on Woodward Avenue. 388 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:12,160 We had Mayor Duggan there. 389 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:16,440 Congresswomen Tlaib and Dingle were there, of course, and of course, the Fisher House 390 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:17,440 Foundation. 391 00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:19,720 This is number 99. 392 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:20,720 House number 99. 393 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:23,960 They've been doing this for years. 394 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:29,760 And so what this means, you're talking about orthopedic surgeries, this is perfect, right? 395 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:32,720 So we've started increasing our procedures. 396 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:37,960 What we can do is get veterans from Battle Creek, Saginaw, Ketchman area, all the way 397 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:44,800 up to the bridge, Northwest Ohio, bring those veterans up here for procedures. 398 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:50,840 And their caregiver or spouse can stay in the Fisher House absolutely free. 399 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:54,960 And let me tell you, Jim, you got to get a chance to walk through there is absolutely 400 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:56,160 beautiful. 401 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:59,600 This is not constructed by the VA, all right? 402 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:00,600 Yeah. 403 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:01,600 Standards. 404 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:05,960 It's not done by an outside entity that puts dollars into it. 405 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,000 And they put a lot of thought into it. 406 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:13,640 It is absolutely high end five star quality when you walk through there and see it. 407 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:20,720 So these veterans and caregivers, they get free lodging, free mills, free transportation 408 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:26,480 back and forth between there and the facility, especially if somebody's having a week long 409 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:33,320 of oncology or radiation, their family can be here do the entire time. 410 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:36,360 Well, I think 16, yeah, 16 rooms. 411 00:27:36,360 --> 00:27:40,960 I really think if folks don't understanders know what the Fisher House is, they ought 412 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:48,000 to get on their favorite search engine and look it up because private dollars are raised 413 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:49,160 to build this. 414 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:55,040 The Fisher Work Foundation builds these things and then turns them over to VA to run them. 415 00:27:55,040 --> 00:28:00,840 And a lot of Michigan donor money goes into getting this thing built. 416 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:06,680 And so it's really the community's contribution that makes this happen. 417 00:28:06,680 --> 00:28:12,640 And it blends into something that, again, I think folks don't fully appreciate. 418 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,040 I want maybe to talk a little bit about. 419 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:21,600 And that is how much of the VA also works at assisting the caregiver. 420 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:27,080 It's the medical cares for the veteran, but man, you've got to have a real good caregiver 421 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:32,280 and a good caregiver program at the VA to keep this all going, don't you? 422 00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:34,520 No, you absolutely do. 423 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:38,800 And so there's new legislation that is just passed the House. 424 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:43,760 It's still got to go through the Senate that will actually increase caregiver support. 425 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,360 But I'll tell you what we have right now, caregiver support. 426 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:55,200 If back in the day, it was hard to find somebody to care for grandpa or Uncle Johnny or whoever 427 00:28:55,200 --> 00:29:01,160 it may be, your spouse, your wife or your husband, what they do now, they actually pay 428 00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:07,560 you, the caregiver, the spouse, to be able to stay at home and care for your loved one 429 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:09,040 at home. 430 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:16,240 It costs a lot less to care for the veteran at home to bring in different services, physical 431 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:23,520 therapy, occupational therapy, bring those to the house, have basic ADL or activities 432 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:29,440 of daily living in the home, some basic things that can be done instead of putting them in 433 00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:30,440 a nursing home. 434 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:35,680 One, it's a lot cheaper, but two, the dignity of veterans and anybody. 435 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:37,200 I mean, they want to stay. 436 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:38,200 They want to stay at home. 437 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:39,720 And I get that. 438 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:45,800 So the program actually provides financial support for the caregiver to do that. 439 00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:52,560 And there's this new legislation is actually going to provide services for the caregiver. 440 00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:57,040 I think I saw where there's going to be maybe some mental health services for the caregiver, 441 00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:58,040 right? 442 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:01,560 Because the stress that they go through is incredible. 443 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:07,720 Keeping your spouse at home comes with a heavy burden as well. 444 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:09,880 So we have to take care of the caregivers. 445 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:14,280 And I think that's one of the things VA has really been focused on over the last few years 446 00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:19,640 and obviously going forward if this new legislation passes, that you're not going to see in the 447 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:20,640 civilian world. 448 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:22,320 It doesn't work quite that way. 449 00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:28,600 And think about wrapping telemedicine into that homebound veteran with a caregiver who 450 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:35,840 can reach out to their doctor or their nurse practitioner or nurse through telemedicine. 451 00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:40,360 So I mean, there's a lot of interesting things going on to make sure our veterans have the 452 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:42,600 quality of life going forward. 453 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,760 We all really want them to have. 454 00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:49,640 But I got one more question for you and then I'll make sure I've covered everything that 455 00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:51,400 you wanted to cover. 456 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:56,360 But another thing that I don't think people understand enough of is how much research 457 00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:06,200 gets done at a VA medical center that there's always cutting edge technologies being deployed. 458 00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:10,400 But you guys are also always working on like, how do we solve this problem? 459 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,240 Why are we seeing so much of this? 460 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:18,440 So tell us a little bit about the research that may be going down in Detroit. 461 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:23,800 You know, we have a huge research program here and one that I'm very proud of among 462 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:31,760 the board of directors for the Metro Detroit Research and Education Foundation. 463 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:36,160 And it's something that we do other than just your standard research with Wayne State University. 464 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:43,880 We actually reach out to other entities across the country to bring research here to the 465 00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:44,880 Detroit VA. 466 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:46,520 It's something we're very excited about. 467 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:51,160 But here locally, we have done a lot. 468 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:55,320 In the VA itself, we've done a lot for veterans health. 469 00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:57,880 Now, all research is not just about veterans. 470 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:03,040 Of course, it's going to impact veterans, but in the end, it impacts general population. 471 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:08,120 And we have some very smart people who are working on especially sleep apnea. 472 00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:15,280 It's one of the things that our chief of research was our chief of sleep medicine. 473 00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:23,000 And it's very fascinating when you look at their research, especially for the veterans 474 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:30,160 who are deployed in Iraq and the sleep apnea that they're starting to find things that 475 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:37,880 what they called it was, I'll get it wrong, because researchers, their topic is a mile 476 00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:39,720 long when you try to read it out. 477 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:50,480 But they're looking at your gut and what is inside your gut as a result of years being 478 00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:57,560 in the time in Iraq and then how it affects your gut, your stomach over the years has 479 00:32:57,560 --> 00:32:58,800 affected sleep apnea. 480 00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:03,320 I would have never put two and two together. 481 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:05,040 Who would have thought about that? 482 00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:09,200 But that's what they're down to and they're starting to find a correlation. 483 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:12,120 And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today. 484 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:13,760 I am Jim Fossone. 485 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,000 It's been a pleasure to be your host. 486 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:20,760 I'm a Veterans Disability lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at 487 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:28,320 800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web. 488 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:33,200 You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio 489 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:37,800 shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org. 490 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:40,400 That's veteransradio.org. 491 00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:46,040 We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development 492 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,960 Council, NVBDC.org. 493 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:56,920 Legal Help for Veterans, a Veterans Disability law firm with a national practice before the 494 00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:02,120 VA can help you on your claims and your appeals. 495 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:12,440 It can be reached at legalhelpforveterans.com or 1-800-693-4800 and PuroClean, a leader 496 00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:15,720 in property emergency services. 497 00:34:15,720 --> 00:34:21,960 It's the paramedics of property damage, providing water damage remediation, flood water removal, 498 00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:27,640 fire and smoke damage remediation, mold and biohazard cleanups. 499 00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:35,960 You can reach them at puroclean.com or 800-775-7876. 500 00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:38,880 We also want to thank our local sponsors. 501 00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:46,720 This would include the Charles S. Kettles chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, 502 00:34:46,720 --> 00:34:55,720 chapter 310, VFW, Graf O'Hara post 423, the American Legion, Erwin Preskin post 46 in 503 00:34:55,720 --> 00:35:01,600 Ann Arbor as well, the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, and certainly the National Vietnam 504 00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,200 Veterans of America Association. 505 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:11,400 You can be a sponsor by going to veteransradio.org, clicking on the about us and our sponsors, 506 00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:18,000 and help us out, keep this program alive for the 21 and 22 years. 507 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:19,520 Keep us going for another 20. 508 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:41,680 Thank you.