When it comes to overcoming obstacles to helping Veterans, Robley Rex VA Medical Center staff make a way
By Stephen Woolverton, Public Affairs Specialist
When staff from the Louisville Veterans Health Care System heard that Veterans at the Carl M. Brashear Radcliff Veterans Center needed to renew their Veteran Health ID Card (VHIC), but didn’t have the means to get to a VA facility, they brought the service to the Veterans.
The Veterans Center, which has more than 50 Veterans living there, is less than 10 minutes from Fort Knox, and their residents often go shopping or do other errands and activities on the base. However, with the new Real ID requirement, their old VHICs were no longer valid, and without these VA issued ID cards, they were not allowed on base.
More importantly, the Veterans Center would take the residents to their medical appointments at the Fort Knox VA Clinic, which is on the base. However, without a valid VHIC, many of them found themselves unable to access the medical care they needed.
Realizing the problem, and without another VA facility close by, Vickie Thompson, a social worker at the state-run Veterans center, contacted the VA for assistance.
“They would have had to come to Louisville to get them done,” said Tammy Parker an Advanced Medical Support Assistant (AMSA) supervisor at the Greenwood VA Clinic. “So, for their convenience, it was just simpler for us to grab a laptop and a webcam and go to them.”
On July 10, Parker and two others, AMSA Supervisor Sarah Carpenter, and Nurse Manager Carrie Brown, MSN, drove to the Radcliff Veterans Center and setup to process new VHICs for the Veterans living there.
They had planned to spend a few hours there to get pictures and process the information needed to order the new cards for the Veterans, but they ended up spending the whole day helping the Veterans.
“It took us a little longer than expected, which was fine,” said Brown. “We worked in between their schedule: getting up, meals, and activities.”
There was one Veteran who, after taking a look at the picture, realized that he needed to get his hair cut.
“We told him, ‘Absolutely, we will delete this picture,’” said Brown. “’We will wait for you to get out of the barber shop, and we will take your picture again.’”
“This is a great example of state and federal working together in the best interest of the Veterans,” said Paula Thompson, assistant administrator for the Radcliff Veterans Center. “The staff here greatly appreciate you coming over.”
At the end of the day, the staff from the Louisville VA processed new VHICs for 20 Veterans. And even then, they knew they weren’t done, as there are still more Veterans there that need to renew their VHIC. They plan on getting the rest of the Veterans who need a new card processed when they return on July 24.
Veteran Fred Wilson made certain that he told each of the VA staff there that he was so grateful they were able to come out. And Allen Murrell, son of Veteran Albert Murrell, said he greatly appreciated this, and it was a huge benefit to not have to take his father all the way to the Robley Rex VA Medical Center in Louisville.
Likewise, Carpenter was just as grateful for the chance to bring this service to the Veterans.
Carpenter said, “I loved it.”