Improve Our Community Based Outpatient Clinic

American Samoan Veterans Deserve Better Treatment at Our Community Based Outpatient Clinic

1. Patients sit in a hot stuffy narrow hallway, which is not air-conditioned. A security guard is in place to prevent access to the admin/clinic area. Signs are posted warning that you will not be seen unless you have an appointment. This is not a patient friendly waiting room showing concern for patient well-being, or that Veterans are even a priority.

2. It is very difficult to get in touch with the ASCBOC to make an appointment because they seldom answer the phone 699-3725/699-3730. When it is answered, it is often only a voicemail to leave message. Messages left on voicemail are seldom returned. The Clinic closes down for lunch, and in fact put up a sign saying not open for business until 1:00.

3. There is not a computerized sign-in process in place to check in, or to track patient waiting times. Nurses still use notebooks to schedule appointments instead of using the computer.

4. The clinic staff will not see patients unless they have an appointment. Patients often wait overtime for scheduled appointments, and are often cancelled or rescheduled.

5. CBOC Shares parking lot with the PX because the VA Patient parking lot remains unfinished. This leaves Veterans parking across the road and crossing this busy street when the parking lot is full.

6. All the doors in the clinic have temporary paper signs to indicate room numbers or designations. The flagpoles are obviously crooked and unaligned, which gives a general appearance of lack of care and professionalism to this Federal building.

7. The overall demonstrated lack of concern by the Veterans Administration (at all levels) to seriously address these issues is reminiscent of the Walter Reed Scandal which was first reported to the Army in 2004, but it was not until the Post printed it in February 2007 did they respond.