u/GroovyGmaIvy

I’m trying to find out what VA policy/procedure requires when a patient reports that a VA employee inappropriately touched them in a sexual manner while they were receiving care at a VA facility.

I’m specifically interested in what is supposed to happen after the report is made. Is there a required reporting chain, incident report, patient advocate involvement, notification to leadership, investigation, follow-up with the patient, or other standard procedure?

I’m not asking whether I should report it — it has already been reported. I’m trying to determine what the VA was required to do once it was reported and whether the proper procedure was actually followed.

If anyone works for VHA or knows the applicable VA directive, handbook, policy, or SOP, I’d especially appreciate the policy number or a link to it.

The apartment manager knows that I’m disabled. The apartment manager knows that I don’t have a subscription to the package lockers in the mail room. The apt manager knows that my having to make multiple trips down there creates an incredible amount of pain for me. Recently $300 worth of stuff from Amazon got delivered into those package lockers across a few different packages. The apartment manager, instead of letting me know that she took my packages out of the package locker, she sent them back with the FedEx driver. Now I have to fight with FedEx to try and get the packages re-delivered. Such a b*tch.

My doctor convinced me to try the lowest dose Butrans patch even though I told them that I usually get headaches from pain medication. I put the patch on Tuesday at 2 PM and the headaches have been so bad for the last 24 hours. I already suffer from several different headache disorders. That stupid patch made me a lot worse and I have taken so much of my headache medicine and the headaches just keep coming back. I ripped the patch off at 5 AM and will never wear another one again.

I have left two messages for the nurse in the pain clinic.

I worked at McDonald’s in high school and left in 1992 when I moved to Oregon. Within a few weeks, I was on my way to Navy boot camp. While I was gone, McDonald’s started the Monday Night Football promotions.

When I came back, Monday nights were a whole event. The employees wore jerseys for their favorite teams, the game was on the TVs, the restaurant was absolutely slammed, and there was just a different energy in the place.

I still remember the prices: 25¢ hamburgers, 30¢ cheeseburgers, 25¢ small fries, and 25¢ small drinks.

People weren’t stopping by for one burger. They were buying sacks of burgers and fries and taking them home for the family. No apps, no delivery fees, no complicated orders. Just a bag full of burgers spread out on the table and everybody digging in while watching football.

Maybe I’m showing my age, but I miss that. I miss when McDonald’s felt like part of the community, when Monday Night Football felt like an event, and when you could feed a family without taking out a second mortgage.

Anybody else remember those Monday Night Football specials?

I thought it would be interesting to see who the artists were for all the music that plays on the show. Most of the music I don’t recognize so I was genuinely curious.

I Shazam’d a lot of the music this last time that I watched the show and there were a lot of surprises. Some songs have been Shazam’d hundreds of thousands of times and there’s a LOT of music that’s only been Shazam’d less than 10,000 times….there’s even some that don’t show up on Shazam.

On my latest rewatch, I noticed something I’ve never caught before.

When Debbie goes to the welding school to pay what she owes, she spells her name “D-E-B-R-A” so the woman can find her in the system. Later, when Fiona gives Debbie the $50,000 check, the check is made out to “Deborah Gallagher.”

So which is it—Debra or Deborah? 😆

I’ve watched this show more times than I can count and somehow never noticed it until now.

I am a VA patient that has needed knee surgery for a few years. The VA confirmed the surgical need with an MRI. They have sent numerous approved referrals to Dr. Howarth’s office at CommonSpirit. I have NEVER received a phone call to schedule an appointment. When I call to schedule an appointment, they have never heard of me and have no record of any paperwork received by the VA. I keep calling the VA back and they assure me that multiple approved referrals have indeed been sent.

This injury is preventing me from playing with my toddler grandchildren. I’m never gonna get these years back.

I was sexually assaulted at the Colorado Springs Springs VA on May 15, 2025. Because of this I cannot go back to that building because of the emotional response I have just thinking about going back to that building.

I’ve been trying to get into orthopedics for three years for a knee injury that needs surgery. I’ve had an MRI that confirms the need for surgery. The VA has sent over multiple approved referrals to Dr. Howarth’s office over the last three years. They never called me to schedule and when I call them to get scheduled, they say that they’ve never heard of me and they have no paperwork on me.

I know that VA reimbursement isn’t great but that’s no reason to deny me care.

I just wanna be able to play with my toddler, grandchildren, and with this injury, it’s nearly impossible. I’m never gonna get these years back.

It’s the VA, so naturally a medication that requires careful titration turned into a scavenger hunt.

My VA psychiatrist started me on a “medication” for Bipolar I. Because of the risk of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, I asked to titrate more slowly than usual: 25 mg daily for 2 weeks, then increasing by 25 mg every 2 weeks. My psychiatrist agreed. (A HS friend’s spouse came down with SJS from a different medication… I wasn’t taking any chances)

I eventually reached 100 mg daily. During a video visit, my psychiatrist said he would overnight 150 mg tablets so I could increase to 150 mg. The med did not arrive. I kept calling the pharmacy because I was running out. I ended up going completely off the “medication” for 6 days before the 150 mg tablets finally arrived.

Since I had already been off the medication for 6 days, I was uncomfortable jumping directly to 150 mg and requested to restart the titration from 25 mg. They agreed and sent 25 mg tablets.

I worked my way back up to 75 mg. About a week before I was due to increase to 100 mg, I sent a My HealtheVet (email) message explaining that I would not have enough meds to continue the titration. I did not receive a response for several days.

When I finally received a reply, I was told that med requests cannot be submitted through secure messaging; thanks for letting me know this ahead of time.

The response arrived through the VA app, whose notifications work with the same reliability as my sleep schedule. I didn’t see the message until Friday night. I replied and explained that I needed it by Sat June 6.

The med that arrived on Sat June 6 via another person I talked to at the pharmacy was #10 of the 150 mg tabs, not the 25 mg tabs I needed to continue the titration. Since I was supposed to increase from 75 mg to 100 mg, the 150 mg tablets were useless. Had anyone actually looked at the titration schedule??

This was the 2nd time my “medication” titration had fallen apart because of the VA pharmacy. When my psych called to ask why there was an issue, I explained everything and told him I was done.

The most frustrating part is that it was actually helping. My sleep was improving! …but not anymore.

I didn’t quit the “medication” because of side effects. I quit because the VA couldn’t successfully execute the complex logistical challenge of getting the right pills into the same ZIP code as the patient.