A New Day at the Seattle VA: A True Story of Excellent Customer Service

Last week a veteran's mother called Veterans and Friends of Puget Sound with a problem. The veteran was at a VA facility in Washington State outside Seattle with a serious medical condition. The mother, who lived out of state, explained that the veteran needed and wanted to be transferred to a facility nearer his family so they could assist with his care. For medical reasons, this had to be done in a hurry and she was flying in to Seattle at the end of the week to escort him.

(I apologize if this story seems a little vague, but we can't use names, for privacy reasons.)

This posed problems. She didn't know how to make arrangements for the facility back in her home state to receive him, get his records, find a bed and so forth. Also, he had lost his photo ID, and we all know that it's almost impossible to fly without it. The need for speed was driving this situation right into major roadblocks.
Time was short. Frankly, it didn't seem likely that this could all be taken care of by the weekend.
VAF contacted the head of Customer Service at the VA Hospital in Seattle. Within a short time, he was talking things over with the mother and making arrangements for the veteran to get into the facility nearest the mother's home.
The ID was a harder problem. Fortunately the veteran was already registered with Puget Sound VA System, so they had photo on file. The Customer Service Manager pushed to get his photo ID reprinted and delivered in time for them to make their flight; he even stayed an hour after his work shift to ensure the ID got into the mother's hands on time.
It all worked!
This weekend we spoke with the mother, who tells us the veteran is now being cared for in the new facility. Mission Accomplished!
This is a good example of what looks like a new day at the Seattle VA. VAF is encouraged by stories like this, in which problems get solved by treating veterans like valued customers. While it's our job to keep looking for issues to work on, we're happy to report that many of them are now being dealt with and we stand in support of this positive trend. If we can all keep working in our various roles, there is no reason why Puget Sound VA Hospital System cannot return to being in the Top 10 VA facility and start competing for the Number 1 spot.