All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry. I was a CW-2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1969.
I want to welcome you to our program today. I'm really excited. We're going to be talking with the directors of the Ann Arbor Healthcare System and the Detroit Healthcare System on our program today.
So, write down this number. If you have any questions in the local southeast Michigan area, call us wherever you are if you're listening live. The number is 734-822-1600.
734-822-1600. And we'll take your calls and, hey, we've got the experts here. Answer your questions. So hopefully you'll take advantage of that.
We've also got some of our regular benefits people here today. We've got retired Air Force General Caroline Falzone.
She works with Legal Health for Veterans, and so she will be here for you. We've also got Brian Hayes from the Ann Arbor Facility from the Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center.
So, we're excited to have these folks on. And before we get to them, I've got to hold on just a second here.
Let's see who that might be. Somebody is signing in. But we've got, what do I got to do? I got to talk to the sponsors. That's what I got to do. All right.
All right. So, as you all know, we are listener-supported radio, and so we need to make sure you've got your support. So, I've got a couple of people that have been really helping us out over the years.
Number one is Legal Health for Veterans. Legal Health for Veterans specializes in Veterans disability claims. You can give Legal Health a call at 800-69-34800, or go to their website, legalhealthforveterans.com.
The National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as NVBDC, is the nation's leading third-party authority for certification of veteran-owned businesses.
For more information, you can go to their website, that's NVBDC.org, or give them a call at 888-237-8433.
PuroClean is the known as the paramedics of property damage. They are a franchise out there, and one of the great things about they provide water damage remediation and floodwater removal and smoke and all those damages and stuff, fix everything up.
But they have a great franchise program going, and the reason that we're talking to you is that they offer 25% off their franchise fee for anybody, for any veteran.
So, for more information, you can go to puroclean.com.
Okay, here we go. The Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For more information, go to va.gov.
And the National Veterans of America, never again will one generation of veterans abandon another. For more information, go to their website, that's vva.org.
The Irwin Press Court, American Post 46 and the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
By the way, if you'd like to support Veterans Radio, please go to our website, veteransradio.org, and click on the donate button. Thank you in advance.
Now let's get into the program.
All right. So, as I said, we have got guests from the many areas here.
We have done some technical things here. Everything my eyes are wandering all over the board here.
Anyway, what I'd like to do is I wanted to make sure that we introduce our guests again. Number one, we've got Carol Ann Falston retired Air Force Brigadier General, a nurse for a couple of years.
So, Carol Ann, welcome.
Welcome, Dale, and all of our guests and happy new year to everybody.
Thank you. We've got Brian Hayes, who's nursing a cold from the Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
Brian is the communications director. So, Brian, welcome back.
Thanks. Also, Navy Veteran Operations Specialist Second Class.
That's Brian right there.
A lot of Navy people today.
Also, we have joining us from the Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Is there executive director? That's Dr. Ginny Kreisman.
Dr. Kreisman, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you. Thank you for having me and looking forward to our conversation this evening.
I am too. I am too. And also, just joining us on the line is Chris Colley. And Chris is the new medical executive director for the VA Detroit Healthcare System.
Chris, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Good afternoon, Dale. I check. Can you hear me okay?
We can hear you just fine.
All right. Thank you for having me.
Thank you. Thank you for joining us.
All right. So, we've got, actually, you know, with everything that is changing on the 20th of January with a new, not a new administration, but yeah, it's a new administration coming in.
And I'm just wondering, Dr. Kreisman, we talked about this briefly. Are you anticipating any changes?
Yes. Actually, I think, as I indicated earlier, I've been in the VA for about 33 years.
And you get to see the changes of the administrations. And each time kind of comes with something new.
If it's a carryover, it's usually a little bit more easy to transition because the folks are in place and you're just continuing to move forward with a similar mission or strategy.
When you get a change in administration or a change in congressional representatives, you might, it goes a time, I think, where it's a little kind of trying to figure out where everybody is.
And what who the players are, what the pieces are.
It takes a little bit just to get to, you know, kind of get a hold of that. And so we'll spend a little time in the transition teams landed in VACO this past week.
And getting to know each other and sharing and hopefully seeing, you know, where we kind of are synergy and where there might be changes coming forward.
But I anticipate that's going to be, you know, the hit the ground running and when they end January, but I think it'll be two or three months before we actually see some changes moving forward.
But as I was telling my staff, you know, that's my job to worry about. That's my boss's job to worry about. You just keep serving the veterans and we'll be fine.
That's cool. Chris, how about you? What have you heard?
No, I agree with Dr. Kreisman. Look, at the end of the day, I don't care if it's Democrat or Republican, you know, the president, the president, they have the veterans at the heart of everything.
And I think we'll see some things in this administration. Really looking forward to, you know, additional resources, a real heavy emphasis on suicide prevention.
And I'm excited to see that. Well, I'm excited about that.
Okay.
I was, we were talking about a couple of things over the last year, I guess, you know, the VA brought in some new programs. I was wondering if we could kind of review what some of those might have been.
I was looking before we talked about this with the Veteran Connect program and, you know, how successful or, you know, that that has been.
Dr. Kreisman, how is she going?
Veteran Connect, if you're talking about the, you know, the connected center that we have, or it's like you call one number and allows them to do a couple of things.
They can schedule appointments for certain appointments.
And we do have that available. It's up and running for the last couple of years.
The other one is they, we now have a partner program with that program. So for the longest time, we didn't have a virtual ED.
But a virtual ED is something that we, you know, piloted here in Ann Arbor and the Michigan market for a short period of time now, which spread it across the whole business, which is, you know, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.
And it really gives a Veteran an opportunity to call in to connect. They maybe they talk to a nurse, a nurse says, I think you need to see a good an ED or an urgent care.
But I do have this virtual option. Would you like that?
And we're seeing a good percentage, about 40% of our veterans are saying, yes, we'd like that. We'd like to have that opportunity because I don't know if you all have been in an ED lately.
They're crowded. They're very busy. Even the urgent cares are.
And sometimes you just don't fill up to it and even community or even in the VA system. So this allows them to talk to a physician to connect with their physician throughout the vision.
And they spend a little time talking with them about their care and they can offer them all the medications, labs, whatever they might need and address an issue.
And a good percentage of the times and when they can't, they're like, well, let me see what be what what is the closest ED for you to go to our urgent care.
So it's a little bit more directed and it helps them because I think we've seen veterans go to the EDs before and they haven't been admitted and haven't had the opportunity to reach out to the VA and say, I'm here.
So this allows us to make that a little bit better transition for them.
But also when you're not feeling well and you know, you just really need some, you know, an antibiotic or something like that. This allows us to take care of it more expeditiously, but actually from the comfort of your home.
So we are using more virtual care programming than we ever have.
I would even go on even to say in the in our connect program we, we often see veterans from all over and they want to come here to get their care in particular because of our relationship with the emergency and machine ability to provide services.
So we actually have something where we try to do that is much care close to where the veteran is coming from say they're coming from Northern Indiana, virtually, and then with their doctor, and then bring him here when they need to.
So that's about what I when I think of the via connect. That's what I think is the connected call center.
Yeah, I really, I'm really excited. I've talked to some people have been able to use it and it's it, you know, it's worked out really well for them.
Just the idea of being able to reach out and and talk to somebody because you feel miserable, kind of like what Brian feels like today with his cold.
You know that the.
It's, it's also beneficial as Dr. Jenny indicated, this is the flu season and the respiratory and sometimes you're not the priority when you go into these emergency rooms that are closed now from emergencies and the weather is bad outside accidents.
And you might sit there for a couple hours and you're clogging the system in some way. So whoever thought of this idea, Dr. Jenny, and I don't know Chris, if you have it at Detroit, but I think it's a fabulous idea as a prior emergency room nurse to look out in that waiting room and hear everybody coughing and sneezing and the germs passing around.
I think this is a phenomenal idea.
It seems like that because it, you know, as I mentioned reading an article about it, it was about a young mother veteran with a couple of kids at home who had a cold and couldn't, you know, it was just really miserable and but, you know, couldn't get to an emergency room.
She was trying to figure out if she should. So she called the number and, you know, got to talk to a nurse, tertiary nurse, and then they kind of, you know, focused around and got her the medication that she needed and so forth.
And she never had to leave her house.
And I think that's one of the things that I found in talking to some of our older veterans that I know they don't like leaving their house. They don't like to sit around and in, you know, emergency rooms or even urgent care rooms and to get cranky and, you know, they don't take care of themselves and there's a
lot of things. If you are in southeastern Michigan or in Michigan in general, the number for the veteran connect I've copied down here is 833-940-1624.
833-940-1624.
I believe the number is kind of different in different parts of the country. So you may want to go to your VA medical center's website and pick up the number there and actually just go to va.gov and you can find all of the different VA medical centers there and the phone numbers are available to you.
Chris, I'm assuming that you are using the same program in Detroit.
Yeah, we are. Actually, we have a provider that's also working that shift as well. So when Ann Arbor trialed it, we threw in a provider from our emergency department as well who's doing it also.
When you talk about new programs, one that we're chasing in Detroit, but Ann Arbor has it. I would like Dr. Creason to talk about the close to me program if she hasn't already.
I think that's a cool program. Detroit's going to look at pursuing this. Dr. Creason, can you talk about the close to me program?
Sure. Ann Arbor has funds both out, but it's actually a great program. So many veterans have to come in on a regular basis for infusions. Some of them are chemotherapy, but a lot of them are other therapies.
And they have to live in Toledo or they live in Howell. It's a good drive. The weather's bad. The whole tenures. But we've been able to implement in two areas, Toledo and in Howell, the ability for us to send infusions out to those areas to be provided to the veteran who lives in that area.
So if you have to come in for a steroid, you've got to get it three days a week for a couple weeks and it has to be given IV therapy. No need to come to the hospital. We can work with your physician to arrange for that infusion.
We've provided a closer to home. That's what we call close to me. And we have the individuals that can do that in those areas.
We're starting with the lower kind of, you know, not necessarily the chemotherapy yet because we want to build our resources and our ability to do it. But it just is another way of trying to meet the needs of the veterans closer to home.
So it just saves them drive time, allows them to continue to, if they interact with the Howell or the Toledo or in Chris's case, he's looking to do that in the Detroit area. You know, they get to go to the place they normally go to get their therapy.
Well, I think I think it's really interesting to point out to our audience also is that this is off the website. There are 1390 health care facilities across the country, 170 medical centers like Ann Arbor Detroit and wherever you happen to be and 1193 outpatient centers.
And so there's a place near you for all of you that are listening where you can get care. And I think that that's important in the VA over the especially over the last, I don't know, maybe 812 years or so has really been expanding these clinics that are really all over the place.
And so, again, I advise you to check with your local VA center and find out where they are because there might be one just around the corner.
So, Dale, there's about to be 1194. We're getting close to locate the facility. We're going to be opening a new outpatient clinic probably around the Southfield area. That'll be summer.
I'm really excited about that primary care mental health to start off with. And just this earlier this year we opened a clinic down in the Trenton area and again primary care and mental health. And we do have approval to an outpatient clinic in Macomb County we are working with cell cell for a
care National Guard base to possibly put in a clinic on their base. I think that's kind of exciting. There's some logistics involved with at any time you go on a National Guard base. But I think we can work through that and that's exciting for us.
That's really exciting. That's very cool. And I know that's you know, we've got how many VA hospitals do we have in Michigan?
We have four VA hospitals in Michigan. So, Battlefield, Saginaw, Detroit and Nan Arbor.
Okay.
Oh, you technically also have Iron Mountain in the.
Upper Peninsula.
What's up in what?
Iron Mountain. I forgot Iron Mountain because we don't often work with, we'll always work with them. But you know, they're up on the Upper Peninsula. So we actually, as Chris said, we have five facilities in Michigan.
Okay, well, they're closer to Wisconsin.
Yeah, right. And that those individuals when I was in at the state office for the VA.
Those individuals in the UP go to Wisconsin as Dr. Jenny just said. And so sometimes we don't think of that, you know, the lower in the upper. But yes, it still is Michigan in the UP.
But I will say though that Iron Mountain really relies on Detroit and Ann Arbor for inpatient mental health, right? So you've been petitioned, you know, you can't.
State line so that's we get a lot from Iron Mountain.
Okay, so you mentioned that most of these these outpatient clinics out there, most of them start off with primary care and mental health, correct?
That's correct. Yeah.
Well, that's I mean, that's I think that's great that they have the opportunity or someplace relatively close to them where they can get this kind of care. It's so important.
It's important.
So the idea is you get a fan base if you will coming and then you start build other programs. Physical therapy is a must. Going forward, outpatient clinics should have physical therapy. And we're talking about audiology, optometry.
We're adding chiropractor services to the Pontiac outpatient area. And we're also adding x-ray and ultrasound. So depending on where you're at, what services you provide, you can start adding those specialty services as well.
Correct. I think these days, physical therapy is just a must. I think we're looking for that in Flint and how we've got some work to do that. I would say to also in the Ann Arbor area, we are we have working on an expansion plan for Toledo because it's books in the northeast
Ohio area. They don't have a lot of resources available to them. So we're getting ready to really kind of move forward with our specialty care there. So a lot of them have to come up here over to Cleveland. This allows them a place closer to home for some of those specialty
care items. And you're right. You start with a small footprint and you kind of build. And then the other one would be Canton. We're working on that too, chiropractic care and acupuncture. We also have a wheelchair clinic out in Canton right now. And just again, just kind of, you know, starting small, seeing what the veterans need and then growing and growing a little bit more, just to meet their needs closer to home.
Go ahead. I was going to say it's just as impressive and I just want to make sure that, you know, that our veteran community out there realizes that they're trying to do everything they can for you.
So, you know, you don't necessarily know stay home and, you know, utilize this for you. This is what you learned, you know, you earn all these benefits, you know, through your service and it's important that you utilize them.
Because, you know, if they see that we're not using these facilities, they may not want to fund them any longer. And that's, that's one of my big concerns is that, you know, we've got I don't know how many million vets are left, you know, maybe nine million.
That's a pretty good size crowd.
We're thinking me and veterans but about 90 million of them use VA services.
That's only half of them. All right. Yeah, it's only half of them but I think it's a pack deck and some of the those were starting to see a little bit of expansion which is, you know, a positive and then more services being available to them and I was going to we've been talking
a lot about closure to you but one of the things Chris and I and the other directors within the Michigan market we call ourselves the Michigan market is we've been working to we put together what we call a transportation navigation hub.
So, you know, many times veterans would get frustrated they call Detroit no no you have to call an arbor for your transportation.
I know the one number I think it and I have to defer to Brian but I think it's vets lift and allow you call this one number when you want to arrange your travel.
When you have to say come from St. battle Creek to Detroit to get some care.
And they will, you know, work this one number you instead of getting kind of back and forth, we call this one, this hub number and they make the arrangements wherever you might be going in the healthcare systems.
And we just find that that's a very positive for veterans.
It's actually even expanding we had a small group we started with the pilot project with only four four individuals.
And now we're reaching out to just to grow it a little bit more of us the call volume starting to pick up.
And then the next thing too is they become little experts so maybe Chris has a certain transportation options in a metro area that I don't have in my area or battle Creek doesn't have in their area, or maybe Saginaw with a moral has different
transportation they become experts so they can try to connect the dots for you and help you get there so we're really trying to go with these kind of one call numbers so that books can get a consistent answer to the question and one that reflects
what all this offer and just trying to meet the needs of our veterans.
And for you.
No, I was going to give out the phone number for that. It's 877 bet lift, and you should call at least three days before your appointment.
So you can get on the schedule. And I think that's cool. So it's 877 bet lift. And I'll figure out the numbers for it and get back to you.
And we try to do that.
I think that this is great. I mean there's so many things that are available to you we I think on our last programs. We talked about the emergency emergency help for homeless vets.
And this is a lot. I mean, I can let me talk about it just briefly. This is for the veteran that you see them that unfortunately may be on the side of the road with a sign saying they need help.
And, you know, we don't know if they're veterans or not. And sometimes we get a little cynical and we're saying, well, you know, I don't know.
I know that's still going to get money to somebody that's not being truthful, but we can call the VA.
And they will send a representative out to try and talk to this person to find out if they are a veteran and indeed what we can do from the VA side what they can help them.
I know this is a, you know, we're throwing numbers out here all over the place, but this one number is 877-424-3838.
And you don't have to be a veteran to call the number. You can just be a citizen that says, oh, there's a veteran out here who's in need.
You could call that number. So that's 877-424-3838.
I think it's another, it's a great resource that the VA is providing to our veteran community.
And it kind of made me kind of think of a couple of things with homeless programming.
You know, this month is that when they do the point in time count throughout the state, our community partners, we partner with our community partners, all the healthcare systems come together and they go out and count veterans that are out in our community that are not.
Housed or in certain areas. And what that helps us is when they go out and do this, it gives us a physical count.
And a lot of these folks know that we're the, we're defined where they're staying in the whole 10 yards and allows us to get funding according to our accounts.
So that's going to be happy. It's interesting that's in January. I don't know who picked January, but they go out and do those counts during January.
And that's the sweet. And then the other thing too is, I don't know if you all have talked a lot about the Elizabeth Dole Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act.
On my list.
Yeah. Well, it came out, I think it was the 16th and we just had a high level briefing about it. Chris and I, and it really is, it's going to expand care in a few different places.
One is just really, again, nursing home and other long term care options. You know, are we have a goal of keeping our veterans at home as much as possible?
And it's going to do that's one thing. But what made me think about it was, it's also has something called title title for homeless matters.
And it's authorized per day and payments for service furnished to homeless veterans.
And as you know, here in our area, and I'd have to defer to Chris, but it's very expensive. And sometimes we don't always have right for deans to meet the needs of our veterans and finding home inform.
So I'm hoping that with this expansion with this dole act that hopefully we'll see some opportunities to a take care of veterans in long term care at home more often, but also maybe come up with some more options of offering homes.
So can we talk about that just for a moment a little bit about the end. Is that for in home caregiver.
That's also has it has a caregiver support program expansion to. So it'll is so you know one of these is somebody has a mother in law that's in a memory care unit and just the work that goes in and trying to find services and and resources to take care of it.
I believe that this is a we don't have it out yet, but it's going to also allow for some expansion of the in home caregiver support program.
Okay.
And so it has a few pieces, you know, with everything when there's a new act, it takes a little bit of you were talking about what's coming after June, January 20. These are a couple of things that have come before January 20.
And we're signed by President Biden. But yeah, that it just is going to get out there and just expand a little bit so that we can take our veterans it's very, very expensive to be in long term care facilities to.
It's not always that it usually requires some supplementary care. So if there's an opportunity that a caregiver at home to take care of that veteran and I, you know, it'd be a lot more positive for I think all involved.
I'll defer to Chris on this one.
I think it's a good idea of just giving some a little bit of respite care in there too. Yes, they'll drill and down on the details on the Elizabeth Dole Act. There's one I saw in their expansion on dental care.
And that's one thing that veterans sorely need, but I think it's very specific. It was for those with ischemic heart disease.
You know, so, you know, but they see something there that that veterans need for that. There are other categories again. This just got relayed to we're still drilling down.
But it is a big expansion for veterans looking forward to it.
Chris, as I mentioned, to kind of remind our guests is Chris Colley. He's the medical executive director of the Detroit health care system and Dr. Jenny Creason is from the Ann Arbor health care system, one of those 170 health care centers.
Chris, I'm thinking that in Detroit, you may have a little bit more of a problem with homelessness and then we do here. Maybe I'm just making an assumption, but.
And say some of these new funding things are going to be able to help you as well.
Oh, it definitely will. And we're looking forward to that. But I will tell you, our homeless program in Detroit, I'm going to brag about them is phenomenal.
You know, they get the the grants from this. They're even reaching out because out the already that's provided.
Yes, we have a big homeless population in Detroit, but I will tell you that that our homeless folks are they're out in the streets and the shelters on a daily basis making content veterans, ensuring that they have an opportunity.
Right. And there's some veterans who simply just don't want to. You can tell them all day. These are the things will provide, but they don't want to and that's their right.
But we make sure that given the opportunity, the information if they want to do it. And I think Detroit and phenomenals job with the homeless staff working with the community as well really getting out there and working together with them.
I think you're doing a great job. It sounds like Chris and it's a hard job. I can measure for both of you. It's got to be a difficult job. And we're really pleased. We're going to take a quick break here.
And do our Medal of Honor segment. We do each each week. And so when we come back, if you have any questions, the number again is 7348221600.
We're going to continue just thinking about all the different new things that are going on at the VA. Maybe you're not aware of. I think these are so important.
We have to kind of, you know, keep reminding you that there are benefits that some of you are leaving on the table that you probably really should take a look at.
Anyway, we'll be right back. You're listening to Veterans Radio.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor and combat given a member of the Armed Forces of the United States. There had been over 3400 recipients of the nation's highest award. This is one of them.
Chaplain Joseph O'Callaghan, administered to the wounded and dying, led firefighting crews and directed the jettisoning of live ammunition from his stricken ship. Details after this.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
Why do I serve in the U.S. Navy?
For freedom.
Freedom of religion.
What America stands for.
Why do I serve in the U.S. Navy?
For honor.
Everybody. And watch out for everybody.
Freedom to vote.
Democracy.
Freedom to go outside and play with my kids.
A German Navy to serve my country.
Every freedom that we have.
The right to raise our kids in peace.
My little brother.
My wife.
My kids.
Our children.
The United States Navy.
It's not for ourselves alone that we serve.
O'Callaghan was serving as chaplain on board the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft.
Calmly braving the barriers of fire and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, O'Callaghan groped his way through smoke-filled quarters to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets and other armament.
With the ship rocked by incest and explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging and ever-increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths.
He organized and led firefighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck.
He directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine.
He manned a hose to cool hot armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back, gasping.
O'Callaghan inspired the officers and men of the Franklin to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their striccanship to port.
The Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio.
This is a message from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
And we're back here on Veterans Radio and this is our benefits program for the month of January. It's a brand new year.
We are talking with the medical executive directors of the Detroit health care system, Chris Colley and the Ann Arbor health care system, Dr. Jenny Kreisman.
We've also got Caroline Falzone from Legal Health for Veterans and we've got Brian Aze, communications director at the Ann Arbor health care system.
Brian, that Medal of Honor was for you.
I'm unworthy.
Anyway, just before we kind of took a break, we were talking about some of the benefits that we're leaving on the table there as veterans.
One of them, Dr. Kreisman just sent me a little note says, what about the GI bill?
Yeah, so I was looking in some of the notes.
We get the clippings from different newspaper articles and there's actually recently assigned the Veterans GI bill expansion, which allows, from my content, and I'm still reading about it,
allows for veterans who currently I think you get the GI bill and the education of components like 36 months.
And this is going to add another 12 months for those folks that say, say you worked in service here and then you had a break and then you worked in service here and generals looking going, yes.
And so I thought that was kind of nice because, you know, going to college or trade schools is kind of expensive and having this other 12 months for those folks that seem to be limited before.
I just wanted to bring that up and share and I'll defer to anybody that's here on the call but they know it better than I do but I thought there was again something else that's out there and available.
One thing I've learned I always tell veterans, go back and ask because you things expand and change over timeframes.
The path that is a good example on this GI bill expansion, the Elizabeth door act are things that weren't available, but might are going to be available in the future.
And I think sometimes that can be frustrating to veterans but at least it shows growth and continue improvement and looking to expand those services for veterans but it's hard to keep up.
Yeah, I just want Dr. Jenny just brought up and what Chris has brought up.
I really want to applaud these two individuals great leadership on we are so lucky to have them in our encachment area for lower Michigan because every time they were talking about we're piloting this and we're piloting that and it not only brings great things to Michigan veterans,
but they expand around the country and there are great successes.
The transportation system and the emergency room programs.
I just want to applaud and let our viewing order in snow the leadership we have right now at these two facilities. It can't be any better.
We are so lucky to have them. So thank you Dr. Jenny and thank you Chris for your leadership and keeping a pulse on what's going on, not only in the VA, but in our area. Thank you.
Thank you Carol.
Thank you. And I just want to offer to that you know Chris and I and the directors at Saginaw and about a quick we all know that we're as strong as our weakness.
And it takes all of us to come together. And so we've been really, you know, we have meeting tomorrow, coming together to think about how we can do these things as a group.
So that maybe I have a resource you don't have and maybe we can share that resource or Chris has marvelous homeless program maybe I can learn from him.
And also where we can share with even as we move forward, how we can share resources like we've been talking about coming up with, you know, a long term care joint, not a no see, it's somewhere in the middle of us, where we can work together to meet the needs of the
veterans when it comes to residential treatment or long term care or whatever. So we really like to always talk about the interdependent web. We are really trying to strengthen those fibers, so that we are sharing resources so regardless of the veteran is about a big veteran or wherever they might be.
We're working together and trying to improve their experience. Chris I'll defer to you.
I want to add to that so understanding how the VA or how your particular facility gets funded. It's based on productivity. It's based on the number of veterans and the old school way of thinking was if I were in Detroit, I'm looking over at Ann Arbor going don't cross that line.
That is my veteran, right? And we make that veteran I'm going to lose funding if that occurs. You can't survive that way anymore. And Dr. Kreisman and I was that from years, years ago, and we're excited that she being in Ann Arbor, I'm being in Detroit, we share so much at the end of the day, veteran at the end of that.
And that's what matters. That veteran gets care. I don't care where the money where it follows. I don't care that veteran gets the care that they need. So we've done a lot of collaborations there. Whenever we need somebody who needs admit, we'll call Ann Arbor first.
We're not going to call the community. We're going to call Ann Arbor and say, can you get them? And Ann Arbor rate was just, we're not going to say no. Just bring them here. We'll take them in our ED and we'll figure it out where the veteran needs to go.
And that's something that has really changed over the last couple of years between Ann Arbor and Detroit. Very excited.
There used to be a little bit more competition idea going on. There used to be a 75 corridor. Now shout out.
And the resources took us down that road. And again, as Chris has said, we've just said, it's all about the veteran and we'll figure out the money later.
Okay. And now, so the funding, I guess, this is something that I remember talking about years ago was, you know, the funding is there.
I mean, is this something that the VA has to go to Congress every year and plead their case and so forth? Or is there a, has it been set up now where there is a, it's guaranteed funding, not necessarily the amount, but there's a guarantee that funding will be there.
Oh, there's absolute guaranteed funding. And not only that, we have, our funding is appropriated two years in a row.
All right. So any time the funding resolution, there's fear that the federal government's going to shut down will not happen to the VA services continue because our funding was already passed, if you will, from two years prior.
So we're always here ahead. So regardless of the continuing resolutions or threats, if you will, of the government shutting down, the VA continues to go forward.
That's good to know. It's very good to know. Makes me feel a lot more comfortable when I talk to two other folks out there.
Dr. Ginny, you also mentioned the EHRM. I'm not familiar with that acronym.
So I didn't know folks had talked about it. But as you know, so I'm old enough to remember when we implemented the first electronic medical record in the nation.
I actually was part of it. I think Chris was around during that timeframe too. And, and we rolled it out. It was, it was, it's home built, right? It's, it was built by the VA. It was, and it's marvelous, but it's, it's time, it's time to be upgraded.
It's time to kind of think about what our community partners are using and really just kind of being able to be supported. A lot of the infrastructure for the current electronic health system. Just there aren't the people to do that work anymore.
So I, you know, I know there's been a lot of back and forth about the electronic federal health record. I mean, it's been, it's been up in a few sites and one of them is Columbus, Ohio here.
But, you know, the, our leadership in central offices decided that it's time for us to go together before us to go forward.
Vizintin, you know, has a lot of the infrastructure because we started to work when we thought we were going to do this two years ago. Also, they kind of taken, because our Michigan market is so strong. They've asked us to work together and to implement together. So I believe Detroit and Battle Creek are sometime in mid April, mid 2026.
So we have about 15 months, one way to get ready to go. I think Detroit and Battle Creek are going to go first and soon after Ann Arbor and Saginaw. And the only reason that we, and I think together, if we will be stronger, we can, as Chris alluded to, it's all about the veterans.
So what do we need to do together as we implement this? As somebody who implemented the computerized record, it wasn't perfect when it came out the door. It had to be adjusted and updated and people are not used to how connected we are.
And so I'm sure there'll be adjustments, but I just wanted to, you know, let you know that, you know, we are going to actually start this week. I'm going to be on the runway to start the implementation.
And Detroit under Chris's leadership and Battle Creek under Ms. Martin's leadership are going to be the first out the door as everything is planned right now.
Chris, did I get that right?
You did. So put this in perspective. There are all the medical centers that have gone live with Cerner. You may have heard it called Cerner.
And hiccups. There have been some not smooth implementations along the way. Cerner is, it's not an off the shelf package, right? Where you just plunk it and go.
Cerner was really built for the private sector, more for reimbursement, really. And they didn't build it for the VA. We're inpatient and we have pharmacy benefits and things of that nature.
So they're having to kind of rebuild it as they go with each facility.
So to put this in perspective, the last facility to go was the James level facility in Chicago. They had a pretty decent implementation.
And now Detroit and Battle Creek are next. So out of that 170 something right, we're next.
And I don't have concerns about it for one. I think the VA and Oracle have worked well together to work out the kinks. There's going to be upgrades to it.
I think that by 2020, I think it will be a lot smoother. I think the package is going to be more user friendly. And I think we'll have less of an impact when we go.
But we have to prepare as if it's going to be daunting. So we hire additional people as users or people to do things.
It's fortunate that one example, the pharmacy package, what used to take three or four clicks to get through now takes about 15 clicks.
Twice as long to fill a prescription, right? So, but I think there's a new upgrade that's coming out. Is that right, Jenny?
Yeah, February. In February. So I think it's going to be a lot smoother than the previous one.
Well, I'm speaking to somebody who uses the system that's there already on a fairly regular basis. I find it pretty easy to work around, at least to get my prescriptions filled and to communicate with my primary care and with the specialty clinics and so forth.
So I'm looking forward to it even being smoother. I think that would that's going to be awesome.
I think it should be good. I had that question down here about electronic health records rollout.
I don't know, Callie, do you have anything you'd like to add to this?
I loved also what Chris and Jenny both were saying with, you know, we need to be prepared. I will tell you in the private sector when Cerner was rolled out on my Lord in major hospital systems.
You know, you need to work through all the bugs. You need to ask all the right questions. And that's another great resource that I'm sure you guys have reached out to because in our local community,
most of the private facilities, I think have gone to Cerner, which will make everybody's life easier when a veteran is admitted to a private emergency room, and then they have to connect with the VA in a certain amount of time to notify them.
So I think that choosing that system could be pretty awesome for us and really time consuming time eliminate some of the time consuming consuming methods that we're going through now just to transfer a patient over.
I think that alone will make it so much easier. So I think the preparation will do us good.
I think, yeah, I think that and I see Brian had mentioned here about the new login system. One of you care to address that.
I don't know Chris knows it better than I do but as you know the VA is upgrading their login system, you know, currently in my healthy bet there's an approach you go through I'm not a veteran so I don't know what that is.
But you know, due to all the cybersecurity issues and you know quite frankly, the these bad actors that are holding healthcare systems for ransom and stuff.
So I, you know, I think you're coming up with a new system for veterans to log in and you'll have to take a little time to learn it and I think a lot of us are having clinics and things like that to help people.
But I just want to make sure that was on people's radar that there is a new login system coming and it takes a little preparation for setup and I don't know Chris or.
Yeah, specifically for my healthy vet. We do need to upgrade the security on that it's called ID me.
And it is it is cumbersome I'm going to throw that out there right now and let you know. But the positive the probe this though is is once you get ID me, you're able to get access to other federal websites I believe like so security and other things like that.
So it's not just specific for my healthy vet at the VA.
It is a government federal wide identification.
Right, I'm just looking at it. I'd already set up my ID me account.
So I guess I'm ready to go.
But I like it. I mean, the idea of being able to get in there and seeing, you know, what my doctor has written about our appointments or, you know, what the results of my tests are right away before they call me up and say, okay, they'll stop eating that or don't use so much salt or whatever else is that I continually seem to do wrong.
I think it's going to it's very helpful and I mean it is.
I mean the younger vets obviously are really aware of the technology and are able to maneuver around it.
Some of the older vets I think have a little bit more difficulty. And so the simpler you can make it the better off it's going to be for all of us.
Yeah, you know, if you can, if you know, for instance, Michigan met their patient portal is so easy.
So much information in that. Well, the VA is limited because of CPRS.
And another server, the new federal will expand that and make it one a lot easier.
You'll have a lot more that you can see in the record as well.
Right.
Yeah, it's it's out there. So we've been talking about all of the new things.
And some of the old things that have been going on at your local VA, especially here in Southeast Michigan, we've had the opportunity to talk to two medical directors.
I think that's a great, great thing for us here at Veterans Radio is to provide this opportunity for you, our listeners out there to do that.
We've been talking with Chris Colley from Detroit and Dr. Ginny Creason from the Ann Arbor VA.
And I want to really thank both of you for being on our program and more than welcome anything.
Any of these programs get implemented. Let us know. We would love to help push it out.
Thank you for having us. I really appreciate this opportunity and I, you know, I've been in my job for 33 years and I just love the work that I do.
I love knowing what my mission is every day. So thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you. And Chris, thank you. And I understand you're doing a great job in Detroit.
And I'm anxious to get down there and see what's going on in Detroit.
You really get down and see what's happening in Detroit. If you've been there before and said, you know what, that's not for me. No, thanks.
You may want to come back. Take a look. It is not the same VA from two years ago. Right.
No, I've only heard good things, really good things. So thank you both for being on Veterans Radio today.
Carol Ann, what's going on in the benefit side? We get two minutes to cover it.
It's just the continuing things. And I think the, you know, the two directors brought up a great point. If you're a veteran and you're in the system, go back and find out what's going on.
And how could it make it better for you, especially the caregivers, the programs that are running out there and coming out, they could enhance what your benefits are.
And as you know, Dale, if you have a benefit, if your condition is getting worse, you need to contact your team. You need to contact your representative and let us know what's going on so we could represent you appropriately,
and get you into your physicians and make better things happen.
Okay, so we really are encouraging you veterans out there that are listening to our program or if you're not a veteran, but you know one, talk to them, ask them, you know, are you, by the way, are you using the facilities that are available to you?
I didn't know that you could, you know, you could get dental care, you can get hearing aids, you can get anything that you want. I mean, it's a one-place shopping center sometimes, it seems for healthcare.
And, you know, to find out that if you don't, you know, if you have to go to another facility outside of the VA, you can do that.
But you just got to find out the procedure and process that you need to do that. And for those of you, especially those of you that have not used the VA system in the past,
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to see how efficiently that is run.
And the one thing I can assure a guarantee is that the staff and the, that work in the local VA are really there for the veteran.
And you're not going to get lost in the system. I think that's one of the things that I really wanted to point out, that they are there for you.
You've, you know, you put your life on the line and this is the way that our country is going to be to repay you for that.
So don't sit around. Don't miss out on the opportunity. There's lots of things that are going on out there.
Anyway, I wanted to thank everybody for being on the program today.
We got all kinds of stuff coming up this year on Veterans Radio. And we encourage you to tune in here in Ann Arbor and in Detroit and out in California, KMET.
We really appreciate everybody who's learning what we're doing and how we're trying to continue our mission of telling the story of America's veterans.
So we're going to be going out on my favorite song, which is God Bless America today.
So I hope you'll enjoy it until next week. This is Dale Thromery for all of us here at Veterans Radio. You are dismissed.
God Bless America, land that I love, stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans, white with foam.
God Bless America, my home sweet home. God Bless America, my home sweet home.
God Bless America, land that I love, stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans, white with foam.
God Bless America, my home sweet home. God Bless America, my home sweet home.