[Russ_Boston]

Not living in TV yet I can't comment on whether the POA has a positive or negative effect on my life in TV - I'll withhold judgment.

On the matter of TVRH and emergency rooms in general I can offer some first hand knowledge (maybe other nurses/medical people can chime in):

TVRH, like any emergency room, runs on a medically necessary triage system. The triage nurse (and/or emergency certified RN) is specially trained in making sure that medically needy patients are seen within the time scope to intervene in the process. For example the triage nurse knows the sings and symptoms of a stroke like the back of his/her hand. It is their job to get that patient to see a doctor immediately so that he/she can get them to a CT within 1 hour (JCAHO standard) and administer tPA within 3 hours (another standard) if the CT reveals that a clot caused the stroke. This is just one example of a time bound patient situation.

In the meantime a sprained ankle patient may sit in the chairs section for hours and hours waiting until a doctor is freed up enough to see them and send for x-rays etc.

In the meantime a stuffy nose patient will sit for even longer and wait for the doc to tell them 'it's nothing - go home'!

I'm not telling you anything guys don't know or haven't witnessed for yourself. This happens at my ER in Boston and it happens in TVRH. Granted the POA has more to complain about than the ER but the majority of stories are about how long someone waited or who had to get shipped to Leesburg for a procedure that TVRH doesn't specialize in due to resource sharing with its sister hospital.

But when SL took the time to write that positive story about TVRH to the POA, the least they could have done is print that alongside the others. The POA, VHA etc. can and should be a catalyst for change but they need to keep an open line of communication to do so.

Disclosure: Not an RN yet (taking boards in a month or so) - working in a Boston ER for clinical experience.