Veterans Affairs Department

As an employee of the VA in la Jolla and a veteran I am disgusted with the lack of care and disregard CBOC mission valley as shown me! First off I arrived at my appointment 20 minutes early and check into primary care. About 4 nurse walked pass me and asked me who I was here to see I told them and they all say okay and walked away, after about 20 minutes past my appointment time I went bk to the check in counter and asked what was going on. I was told we are so sorry we will contact your doctor now. Because I work at the VA I get it and I said okay and continued to be patient. Another 10 minutes went by and then a LVN came by and said (once again) who are you here to see and what’s the purpose for your visit today, I then became a little irritated and told him why I was here who I was here to see and my appointment time. He then said okay I guess I can take you back and do your vitals??? (what the hell you mean you guess!!!) he then tells me I am not the LVN assigned to your doctor that your LVN is busy but I’ll try to help her out. I’m like please don’t cuss this man out. He further says that my doctor doesn’t normally see patients this late. I respond and say then y did she book the appointment ??? He says don’t know not I’m not your LVN. So then he says lets go to another room so your LVN can set it up. When I finally get to meet the LVN assigned to my doctor she has no clue what’s going on or the purpose for my visit (I’m about ready to snap) so I tell her and she says ok well we will see what we can do??? I am so disappointed with the mission valley CBOC I have been coming here for 3 years and normally never have an issue. But the staff was so unorganized and not knowing reasons for visits that YOU! Booked is unacceptable. I am not as upset with the wait time because I get it, but the way I was treated will have a lasting effective I know this is not the standard of care that the VA upholds and if I was treated this way I just wonder how they are treating other veterans good thing I know the nurse manger of mission valley because I will be reporting this to her.

Dr Dowling is my primary care Doc. Probably the most attentive, knowledgable and thorough Docs I’ve ever had at the VA. Keep up the great job Sir! Thankfully this Doc is part of my primary care team !

Trying to call in and talk to my doctor or nurse but the extension rings twice then goes quiet. Or I call in and don’t even make it through the beginning of the message about if it’s an emergency – CLICK. call ends. It took me no less than 5 calls trying to talk to someone. Even then, all they can do is put a not for you doctor or nurse to call you. Within the next 48 hours. Awesome. Being pregnant and trying to get OB care and it’s proving to be nearly impossible. So frustrated. The only upside is when I FINALLY did talk to someone, they were at least courteous to me and did what they could to help me.

Very positive primary care physician first time appointment! If you are an eligible Vet I’d urge you to make an appointment if you have not already done so. My doc, nurse, and receptionist were all very warm, caring, and had a sense of humor.
I disagree with criticism of door guards. I am glad they are there. sad reality is, they are needed nowadays.
I agree the parking is a problem. spaces are just too small. there are probably explanations for this, but no excuses. minus 1 star for parking.

I don’t like to be the typical veteran that bashes the VA system. It’s just gotten to the point where It’s almost near impossible to get anything done without doing it multiple times, I never receive my call backs, I’ve had a transfer of service submitted two weeks ago and haven’t heard anything back. I cannot contact the previous clinic and have been left in the dark. It’s really irritating when you have solid evidence to support your claims and you’re told it’s not good enough, I’ve been battling for my situation for over a year and received no back pay for something I was finally rated at 10%. There needs to be serious reform to the whole system. Super dissatisfied and still struggling… wish me luck!

They may as well shut this clinic down and start over! Vets are treated like shit and nothing but a number and their lack of customer service in all areas is appalling!!! I don’t know how many times I’ve had to correct their tone when speaking to me. Physical therapy space is small and the therapist and her assistant are total ass holes! Security at the main entrance is for what? They don’t even have security at the main hospital!!! The eye clinic… Where do I begin. Your time is definitely not important to them. They have you wait and wait and wait until they arer easy to see you. And then once you’re in th office, the appointment is rushed! The guy that sits out in the reception is lazy and rude. This whole clinic is rude, from security to X-​ray, physical therapy and eye clinic.

Customer service is disgusting. Eye clinic has scheduled and cancelled two consecutive appointments without notice. Show up for appointments and doctors cancel. Good news is there is a blind veterans center down the hall. How appropriate! Do not go here if you value your eyesite!!!

I know there are a lot of people that complain about the VA but I have had great experiences.

I’ve been a vet for about 3 years now and this office has been my main go-​to area for info and primary care. The only qualm I’ve ever had is the delay in appointments that were available and recently the VA had remedied that with the VA choice health program which lets me outsource to civilian service providers if they are booked out more than a month. Staff are friendly, environment is clean, and since this is my primary office I don’t have much to compare it against but j heard from a third party that San Diego does have one of the nations best managed offices. So go figure lol.

Out of all the various VA locations in San Diego, this is the one that I prefer to visit. The only downside is the security checkpoint… Not sure why they would have that much security allocated here when the main hospital has no checkpoint. Anyways, that’s probably above my pay grade.

This place, as all other VA buildings, is a joke. Parking is always full but now there is atleast a guy that will valet your car. Then you have to deal with the rent a cops that think they are guarding the President. Then comes the wait. They want you to be 30 minutes early so they can see you 30 minutes late. I have been in numerous times to get an ID and had to go through a whole physical again since they lost my paperwork 4 years ago and never notified me. Their systems are always down and just a complete hassel. The only up point is my doctor. She actually seems to care and is helping me greatly finding treatment. She is the only reason I gave it 2 stars.

Medical was great. Took a bit of time to get in, but once I was in they were very informative and processed the paperwork quickly. My major problem (salute), was when turning in disability form. I don’t remember his name but he was young and I’m sure was a former Marine (used the phrase «tracking»). He simply had no customer service, didn’t seem like he wanted to be there, or care to be helpful. I felt like I was being intimidated not to turn in my forms. Guess what bro, you are there to help your fellow veterans, not to intimidate them or make them feel uncomfortable. You are not in the service anymore and your social skills need to improve drastically.

Parking is available most of the time throughout any time period. Only gripe is the security check in. Slows down travel time to appointment. Convenient too.

Other than the RUDE staff and guards who thinks they’re more than just door guards, there are no complaints about the services provided. Once you get past the retired rude ‘navy’ guys than your services received enhances greatly.

Just another extremely unorganized poorly ran huge government entity. I take my veteran Marine Core mother to The Mission Valley and La Jolla VA regularly, I can’t comprehend how horrible and unprofessional the VA healthcare system is ran. I can’t begin to even explain it it’s so bad. Yes it’s off the charts bad!
The private sector could run the VA Healthcare system one hundred times more efficient and effective than the government. Veterans would have the professional medical attention they seriously deserve. Unprofessional attitudes run amuck with a lot of VA government employees which hurts the reputation of the employees who are very professional, notably mostly the doctors and some nurses.
Government involved in health care or anything for that matter is like putting a person who can’t swim in charge of a lifeguard tower. As famously stated before «government is not the solution to our problem, government is our problem».
Americans deserve way better, America is ready and should privatize all government employees and services. Small downsized government means a better life for all Americans. Start by privatizing all local state and federal government employees, institute a real flat tax code and get rid of SS and Medi-​Cal in the future. If SS is so good why aren’t government employees in the program? Government employees use private sector retirement plans instead of SS, amazing!
When will people finally get it? At minimal our vets deserve far better!

The VA health care system, has been a blessing. When my brother and cousins were in the VA back in the 60’s & 70’s, they referred to the VA as «the meat locker,» or «the zoo». Wish my brother could have seen it today. You couldn’t pay me to go to any other clinic, ever.

BREAKING SCOOP BY RON HINTON: — Obama is charging 100% disabled veterans
… for their Federal Doctor Prescriptions —
… by sending them to private pharmacies that have contracts allowing them to charge cash from the individual 100% disabled veteran for a wide range of VA prescribed items. The problem is that 100% disabled veterans cannot legally be charged a fee for federal services. More soon, probly from the inside of the VA. The media will bury it.
All you veterans, pay attention to Veteran Sites for sudden «Executive Order» from Obama announcing he is enhancing rights of 100% disabled veterans… What actually happened is I exposed his policy of charging them. Now he’ll turn it on it’s head and take credit for restoring federal policy under Title 38.
Update: I made a full report to Patient Advocate at the regional VA Medical Center.
I got a call two weeks later from the doctor who sent me to a contracted (aka «fee basis») provider who was allowed to charge me on the spot to fill these FEDERAL PRESCRIPTIONS TO A 100% DISABLED VETERAN!!!
Excuse the caps. … This doctor sounded rather beaten down. I would imagine the VA blamed her for it. Anyway, she said «it was been corrected and will never happen again for 100% disabled veterans.»
I felt bad for her and sympathized for the «misunderstanding. These young women become doctors and get placed into provocative positions. I. E: Presenting an altered policy condition. Someone sat down and made a contract with WALGREENS Pharmacy. Someone traded federal law for terms. You can’t do that.
Any contract for federal services that suborns (makes inferior and optional) Federal Law and Title 38 Code of Federal Regulations — is an invalid contract, an illegal one. Unless it was negotiated by a political appointee who has no idea what they were doing — or didn’t care apparently.
You will not trade my rights for services.
Semper fi.
Ron Hinton on Facebook
News Report:

These guys just can’t seem to get it right. Unfortunately, the place is run like a typical government bureaucracy with customer service at the very bottom of their «to-​do» list.
I stop by for monthly appointments and always seem to run into lackluster service from just about everyone that «works» here.
For example, there’s an old guy who sits behind the 2^nd floor appointment/​check-​in counter who appears to enjoy making customers wait. The line will be backed up 10-​deep and he sits there and reads his e mail or plays solitaire. Very frustrating.
Then there’s the parking situation: I appreciate that they’ve recently offered FREE valet service. That is a great idea that works well. I usually ride a motorcycle to this site and was astonished to see that they painted the motorcycle parking area red and got rid of 5 MC spots. Really? Can you make it any more inconvenient for us to make our appointments?
Ah, and speaking of appointments: Don’t EVER try to change a scheduled appointment — it won’t happen. No one answers the phones at this place and no one returns your calls. The messages STATES they will return your calls, but it never happens.
If a veteran was to miss his or her appointment, there would be hell to pay. He or she would be removed from the schedule and otherwise punished. But just try to legitimately change an appointment and see how broken the VA system really is. That’s hypocrisy at its worst.
Come on, folks, you can do better. Remember who WE are (customers) and remember what YOU do (serve). We’ve earned that respect, right?
On the plus side, it’s fairly clean.

Sigh, the VA signifies all that is wrong with government bureaucracy.
1. Be prepared to wait. Always. And often they will have no respect for your time.
2. Appointments will take weeks to make. Even after you have a primary care physician. No lie. Ugh. Their solution will be to see the ER. They will make you wait. For hours.
3. You’ll wait even longer to get someone to answer the phone. Oh, their phone system is a nightmare too… good luck making appointments if you don’t know a direct line to your provider.
4. Sigh… no parking. Often the valet is full too, so again, you’ll wait to find a spot.
5. Don’t expect a ton of privacy. Workers from Vet Success were talking about my case so loud I could hear them in the lobby. I confronted them about it and the individual working with me lied to my face. Hmm… so they had someone else there with the exact same experience as me and they were discussing her case at that exact moment?!? Really.
6. Once I found a great doctor they told me I had to move to another one while they moved her to a different floor and shook up all of her patients for no reason. So I have to wait for another doctor to have time to see me and learn my history all over again? Ugh.
7. Did I mention waiting? It took me 6 weeks to finally see a physician and then another two months to get into a physical therapy appointment (just to get a balance board). I initially wanted to get ankle braces months ago and I’m still waiting for this to happen (started in July, might get them in Dec). I had to send a request to a doctor in Seattle I hadn’t seen for years to get new replacements because San Diego is not helpful (already had them prescribed from the VA!).
Sigh, the VA is broken and unfortunately the Veterans are paying the price. We have no advocate to support us (the VA’s advocates do not return calls or answer the phone), no alternatives and our time does not matter to their broken system.

This really is an amazing place. If you are patient with the red tape, because it’s the government and it does need to be there, you will be taken care of. I have been a patient there for about 8 years and I have to say every time I have an appointment, the doctor, whichever doctor it is, seems to have all the time in the world for me. That’s a big deal. I had to have surgery in February and the care they gave me leading up to it and after was amazing.
One thing I think is really cool, I’ve been to the lab to «give blood» ha ha, a few times and when I tell them my left arm is the best for veins, they believe me! The don’t make me give them my right arm. Very cool staff :) The guards are really nice when you smile at them and say hi too. I’m a fan of being nice though, I feel like it gets you pretty far!