Orlando VA Healthcare System — Attraction in Orlando

For any Lake Nona management that reads this please see the last paragraph.

I would like to start by thanking the entire staff that assisted me. I started at the Palm Bay out patient where my nurse on the phone recommended be to go to the ER at Lake Nona. I’ve never been here before and was having severe pain in my abdomen. I arrived at 10:45am Thursday morning, I was given a CT scan and told I was being admitted. By 3pm I was upstairs in my room on the 3rd floor east.

• be prepared to share a room*

Which I wasn’t happy about cause I was in pain and didn’t want to hear someone else’s problems or deal with all that. But it has to be due to the current world issues. The nursing staff doesn’t want us to share rooms either so don’t take it out on them.

My nurses were great … Tatiana and Elizabeth. But Elizabeth went above and beyond. Always making me feel comfortable and always with a smile even though she wears a masks you can tell, big ole smile under there.

The Drs were amazing as well. They also look into every allergy. For instance I though and had been told all my life (50yrs) I was allergic to penicillin. They did an observed trial they call a challenge and found out i truly wasn’t and now I can use penicillin which is huge for me and my body. No one has suggested or even questioned it before.

Although not every one that works there is a veteran they still value what we sacrificed early in in our lives. They made me proud of what I’ve done and in a health care system that most veterans talk bad about you guys do it right. I will recommend you to everyone. I can’t express enough how you guys made my scary experience the best it could be. For this I am grateful and proud of my country and how it’s changed the VA system.

You guys a superstars.

Things I noticed...

the cafeteria closes at 3pm and is closed on weekends. Not fair to family or staff. So what your served is what you get. No other way to get food and not because of diet restrictions even though I was on a clear diet at first but once I could eat whatever for dinner the cafeteria was closed.

one TV per 2 person room. Because they were one person rooms y’all just put a bed in it and a shower curtain between us. We legit are 3 ft apart.

only one call button worked and there was only one speaker. You can see in the pictures the nurses trying to get the other call button to work.

no toilet paper?

make sure every bed has a tray or bedside table it’s hard to get up sometimes to get stuff with the iv and just being weaker

maybe have a person who comes in and just lets the patient know about the facility and how things work such as ordering food and visitation hours. My wife asked 5 different people and we couldn’t get a definite answer.

Thank you again for an amazing experience and thank you for...

VA HOSPITAL ORLANDO ON VETERANS WAY,

HONORABLE MENTION TO THE ENTIRE STAFF, INCLUDING THE HOUSEKEEPING (IRIS) AND THE ENTIRE GALLEY FOR GREAT FOOD CONSIDERING MY DIET LIMITATIONS! EXCEPTIONAL JOB BY ROLANDA & THE SUPPORTING STAFF IN THE FOOD SERVICE DEPARTMENT!

RN JEANEEN has a GREAT PERSONALITY and WORKS VERY WELL WITH PATIENTS! She is a very 👍 good listener and would make an EXCEPTIONAL NURSE PRACTITIONER AND/OR DOCTOR SOMEDAY SOON!🫂

NURSE TECHNICIAN PRISCILLA was an OUTSTANDING NURSE ASSISTANT on the 4th Floor and should be aware awarded a "LETTER OF ACCOMMODATION" for going ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY! 😇

RN JEANEEN & RN TECH PRISCILLA 🍀WORK VERY WELL TOGETHER AND CREATE A COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT DURING A STRESSFUL TIME FOR THE HUMAN RACE.

RN SHEEJA AND RN ASSISTANT CARLOS PERFORMED 🎭 VERY PROFESSIONALLY AT ALL TIMES WORKING LIKE THEY'RE ON A MISSION AT A NON-STOP PACE. THIS IS A CONFIDENT TRUSTWORTHY DEMONSTRATION OF WELL TRAINED EMPLOYEE(S) 👏 WITH LEADERSHIP AND/OR TRAINING SKILLS👍!

ALSO, THE RESPITORY TEAM RESPONDED IMMEDIATELY WHEN WEASING DEVELOPED AT ANYTIME DAY OR NIGHT WITH THE NEBULIZER RELIEF PROCESS WHICH ELIMINATED THE BREATHING DISCOMFORT RRT BEBITA, RRT JEREMY AND RRT MARCIA THE STAFF,...ETC.

ALSO, A DR NICOLE GILL DUNCAN WHO TOOK SAMPLES FROM MY NOSTRIL DISCHARGE TO BE INVESTIGATED AND QUICKLY HAD NASAL SPRAY(S) EXPEDITED MY PHARMACEUTICAL NEEDS TO ADDRESS A LONG STANDING DISCREPANCY. A SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT OCCURRED FOLLOWING THE 1ST DOSE(S)! I WANT TO THANK HER FOR BEING VERY OBSERVANT AND INITIATING IMMEDIATE MEDICAL CARE 🙏! DR NICOLE ORDERED 2 NASAL SPRAYS TO REDUCE AND/OR ELIMINATE AN ONGOING DAILY BREATHING DISCOMFORT FOR OVER A YEAR! SHE GETS A GOLD MEDAL "🏅" FOR INPATIENT CARE!

DR DONGA: UNBELIEVABLE PATIENT CARE AND CONSTANTLY FOLLOWING UP ON MY CONDITION(S). "5 STARS 🌟" 🤩 😎🍀🤙😇 FOR THIS YOUNG LADY!

PHYSICAL THERAPY DEPARTMENT DIANA TECHNICIAN/NURSE WAS VERY PROFESSIONAL AND COURTEOUS WHILE TEACHING ME HOW TO USE AND OPERATE THE 4 WHEEL WALKER. SHE WAS VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE ON THE SAFTEY BRAKES WHEN STOPPING AND SITTING, AS WELL AS FOLDING AND STORING THE F-22 ROLLATOR. DIANA IS SOMEONE SPECIAL WITH FANTASTIC PATIENT CARE SKILLS 😇. I HOPE THE PHYSICAL THERAPY DEPARTMENT CAN DEVELOP A PROGRAM INVOLVING AN SWIMMING POOL FOR LOW JOINT INTENSITY THERAPY, EVEN IF IT IS IN A LOCAL HOME A FEW TIMES A WEEK FOR AN HOUR? IT'S A GREAT MOTIVATOR FOR THE ELDERLY WHO CAN'T QUITE ENDURE NORMAL GRAVITY WHILE EXCERCISING?

SOCIAL SERVICES was VERY HELPFUL MANAGING my arrival from the MIAMI VA MEDICAL SYSTEM. Providing extra clothing to get me through the INPATIENT CARE. They also arranged for a Primary Care Physician to be assigned and continue any follow-up procedures.

VERY BEST REGARDS TO VA...

I wish I can give this facility zero stars. If you care about your health and your life as well as your family members you wouldn't dare step foot into this facility. When you can't get an appointment in a timely manner (which you never will) they send you to community care to see other providers and then when you try to continue your care the VA sits on the renewal paperwork for months which causes a delay in care and then you never get seen. The VA overlooked my brain imaging that came back irregular with a cyst on my pituitary gland and never provided any treatment despite me being hospitalized and they've overlooked an MS diagnosis for 11 months despite three different providers from the community providing paperwork stating exactly what tests need to be done. I was hospitalized November 2023 for the above reasons and because of delay and care and my symptoms becoming so severe I was instructed to go back to the hospital in January where I was admitted again. I was instructed to contact the White House hotline as well as the deputy chief of staff of the lake Nona VA when I showed up to my very first pain appointment in August after getting out of the hospital in January. The doctor was shocked to see that I had so many different community care providers saying exactly what needed to get done and that my provider just sat on the paperwork for months. I just had to be admitted to the hospital again last week because the VA still has not done a brain scan to determine if I have MS or not and the chief of neurology put in for the wrong exams six different times and never marked them as urgent which they should have been because I had such a delay in care and it's already almost been a year. I have had the same experience every single time I've been referred to the community and I currently have six different community care providers. I showed up to the VA to get my labs done last week prior to a procedure and the VA had no idea that I was even pending surgery. I wish I could say that reaching out to the patient advocate and the White House hotline as well as the deputy chief of staff has helped but at this point I think our government is just a lost cause and it's no surprise why veterans regularly commit suicide in the VA...