Director's Message July 22, 2022

Getting vaccinated is still the best way to protect against the flu and COVID-19. Anyone who needs to make an appointment can call 1-800-214-1306. Employees who get the flu shot must turn in Form Appendix B to employee health to document that they received their flu shot.

Mask Mandates in VA Facilities

Mask mandates have been lifted across the country, but I want to remind people that at our medical facilities, we are still requiring masks. Diseases are transmitted at a much higher rate in medical facilities, and we are still seeing COVID-19 and flu cases. Our first and most important duty is to protect our veterans health. Right now, that means continuing to wear masks, practice hand hygiene, and staying home if you are sick. We will notify everyone if there are policies changes. In the meantime, please continue to wear a mask into facilities here at VAPIHCS.

New Website

Providing veterans with meaningful information to make informed decisions about their health care journey is a top priority for VA. Therefore, VA has published average wait times for primary care, mental health, and specialty care appointments at each of its medical centers since 2014, in accordance with federal law. Since that time, VA has received feedback from veterans and their caregivers, Veterans Service Organizations, oversight authorities, and Congress, which led the Department to initiate efforts to revise the wait time metrics presented on the Access to Care website. This is designed to better reflect the veteran experience when seeking health care in the VHA system.

To emphasize what the Secretary shared, we have been listening to and learning from Veterans about their experiences with AccesstoCare.VA.gov. From this, we began a redesign project intending to offer wait time information at all VA facilities that better reflect the veteran experience when seeking health care in the VHA system. In addition to updating the wait time calculations themselves, website updates also provide veterans with more relevant information to help inform health care decisions, including:

•    veteran experience information,

•    increased detail on timeliness within health care subspecialties, and 

•    the ability to view relevant medical center information more easily.

Bookable Hours and Appointment Length Standards

VHA has recognized the need for enterprise-wide standards for bookable hours and appointment lengths for all clinical services. Better standardization among and across clinical services will assist with optimizing capacity across the system, ultimately improving VHA’s ability to provide timely access to quality care.

The new bookable Hours Standard (BHS) requires that a minimum of 80% of a provider’s total outpatient clinically mapped time worked is bookable for face-to-face, telephone, VA Video Connect (VVC), or telehealth care.

The new Appointment Lengths Standard (ALS) says that appointment length standards have been set by clinical leaders to ensure that providers spend the time they need with veterans. These new standards are being set in the spirit of improving care and making veteran’s health care the best that it can be.

Thoughts from Chaplain Richie

Considered one of the greatest and most influential composers of music, Beethoven was able to produce hundreds of works during his lifetime. But by the age of 28, he began to suffer from a worsening case of deafness and tinnitus. By the end of his life, he would have lost his hearing completely. 

Beethoven grieved the loss of his hearing, especially since his ability to hear music was so central to his life’s work and passion. In fact, when Beethoven premiered his well-known 9th Symphony to an audience in 1824, he had to be physically turned around to see the audience cheering behind him, since he couldn’t hear the audience’s applause. But Beethoven did not give up on his passion.

Beethoven was deeply driven to live up to his life purpose and to compose the music he felt he had the gift to create. He had a talent that he wanted to maximize. There are even stories that suggest that Beethoven would saw the legs off his piano, to lay his piano close to the ground. And since he had trouble hearing, he would then put his ears to the floor, and play music based upon the vibrations he felt coming off his music. In fact, some of his most celebrated works today were composed during moments of his life when he couldn’t hear his own music.

Beethoven leaves an inspiring example for us. There’s an old saying that says that “if the mountain was smooth, then you wouldn’t be able to climb it”. Beethoven learned to use the jagged edges of his rocky experience to rise into an even more profound musician. Like Beethoven, we can’t always control the circumstances thrown our way, but we can choose to do the best we can with what we have.

One Team, One Ohana!

Adam M. Robinson, Jr., MD, MBA, CPE
Director, VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
VADM, MC, USN, (RET)
36th Surgeon General, USN

Stay Informed

Website: hawaii.va.gov – submit your email to get our updates
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VAPacificIslands/
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/va_pacific_islands/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PAOOffice1

Weekly Radio VA Updates:
Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. on AM830,KHVH with Rick Hamada