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VA has policy to prevent
errors during surgeryQuestion: What is the Department of Veterans Affairs doing about ensuring that its doctors do not perform wrong-site surgeries?
Answer: On Jan. 1, the VA started a five-step process to ensure surgeries are performed on the correct site and the correct patient. Incorrect surgeries can range from performing the surgery on the wrong patient, to performing the wrong surgery, to performing the right surgery on the wrong site on the body.
The five-step VA directive calls for the surgical team to get patient consent, mark the correct surgical site, have the patient state their name and site of the procedure, confirm all information right before surgery, and confirm the surgical site with imaging data.
According to the VA's National Center for Patient Safety, in 2001 the rate for incorrect surgical procedures was about one in 25,000 to one in 30,000. More information about the VA surgery directive is available online at www.patientsafety.gov/CorrectSurg.html, or contact the VA Medical Center at 433-0600.
Q: I am a Gulf War Veteran. What happens if doctors at the Honolulu VA cannot diagnose my symptoms from my service in the Gulf?
A: While most veterans can be diagnosed and treated at our local VA medical center, some veterans from the first Gulf War have conditions that are unusual and difficult to diagnose and this may be the case for returning Gulf veterans from the second Gulf War.
Sometimes this requires continued testing and observation by a team of specialists. The local VA physician may refer these veterans to a special VA Gulf War referral center. At these four national centers, veterans undergo more extensive medical evaluations that require approximately one to two weeks.
Additional laboratory studies may be done, as well as consultations with other specialists. The medical work-up and treatment recommendations are individualized for each veteran depending on his or her medical condition.
The decision to transfer a veteran to a referral center is made by the veteran's VA physician in consultation with a referral center physician director. Veterans interested in a referral should talk to their local VA physician.
For more information on Gulf War symptoms and treatment, call the VA at 433-0600. The VA's Web site www.va.gov/hawaii also contains information concerning Gulf War Registry.
If you have questions about your benefits as a veteran,
call Fred Ballard at the Veterans Affairs at 433-0049
or visit the VA Web site at www.va.gov/hawaii
or the Star-Bulletin at 529-4747.Gregg K. Kakesako, who covers military affairs for the Star-Bulletin,
can be reached by phone at 294-4075
or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.