Salem VA Medical Center — Local services in Salem

This negative review is mainly directed at a several medical providers and administrative staff in the Primary Care lune of service. It is not meant to reflect poorly on the facility as a whole or the majority of other staff members.

I would advise any Veteran who has Dr. Brent Viers as their PCP, to consider transferring to another provider for their primary care needs. I will not go into great detail, but the care provided by Dr Viers is substandard at best and he has no morals or ethics. He is not interested in taking care of Veterans at all and when questioned, he becomes very defensive and childish. In my case I followed with Dr. Viers for nearly 1 year. My last visit I presented with cardiac symptoms along with abnormal EKG'S. He dismissed my cardiac symptoms completely and dismissed the abnormal EKG'S. The next day I spoke with the Patient Advocate and requested to transfer to a different PCP thru Community Care as I had lost confidence in the care provided by Dr. Viers. This obviously triggered a patient complaint process which angered Dr. Viers because he recorded multiple false and inflammatory information into my medical records for that visit. Some of these statements are so bad that they could compromise any care I get in the future from other providers. I submitred a written formal request that my medical records be corrected but Dr. Viers refused x2. The assistant Chief of Primary Care and Chief of Primary Care both refused to take appropriate action. I did get approved to have a new PCP thru Community Care and Dr. Viers was supposed to no longer be involved in care decisions. However, 1 month later, Dr. Viers entered my medical records again and placed another lie that was clear retaliation and again the Chief of Primary Care refused to help. Dr. Viers had no reason to be in my medical records at that time but did so again with clear intent to cause me harm.

Dr. Viers is a horrible medical provider with no moralas or ethics. He does not care about the Veterans he is supposed to serve. His actions, along with the lack of action by the administrative staff at the Salem VAMC forced me to file a formal complaint against him with the Virginia Board of Medicine. I also filed an OIG complaint. Both are with a request for my records be corrected. Both are being processed. As a Veteran and a patient, I should not have to take such extreme actions, but I was left with no choice. All I want is for the false and inaccurate statements be removed from my medical records and Dr. Viers disciplined so that he never does this to another patient/Veteran...

I've hesitated to write this review. And this is not a negative review of the center overall. Which is why I gave the four stars. My dad's appointment was Jan 13th. Every other time I've brought my dad to his audiological appointments, the experience was pleasant. Every one that we've had contact with, has been very professional and kind. As was the case this last appointment. With the exception of whom I presume was the audiologist. I didn't get her name. She conveniently had her name tag turned towards her. And I didn't ask before we left because the experience left such a bad feeling. I was ready to leave. She was rude and dismissive, basically from the moment we sat down in her office. Borderline combative. She accused my father of giving her the "run around", whatever that means, when he tried to explain to her what issues he was having with his hearing aids. My dad is almost 90 and his way of trying to explain things has slowed down considerably and he often takes the long way around. She also told him he seemed very angry with her. Which is totally false. My father speaks loudly because of his hearing. And he was anxious about the appointment because of the issues he's been having with the hearing devices. But, the worst thing she did was basically accuse him of lying about the length of time it took for him to receive the hearing aids back from having them repaired. He told her it took 41 days. She kept arguing with him. My father lives with me and I told her it did take awhile for him to receive them. Maybe not exactly 41 days. But it wasn't within a week or two. She said she checked her notes. I told her we can't control the postal service and the holidays slowed things down too. She said her notes said that they were shipped overnight. I told her that I wasn't lying. She giggled and said I know you're not. I will be fair and say that maybe she was having a bad day. And I apologized for getting a little defensive over my father. But if this is her normal demeanor, she needs to be working somewhere else. Not with veterans. And certainly not elderly veterans. I hope we never have another appointment with this...

WHY IS THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF’s PORTRAIT NOT ILLUMINATED CORRECTLY???!!!!!

Rebecca Stackhouse needs to be fired!!!! if she’s responsible for anything that goes on at the VA, then she needs to be held accountable for the lack of healthcare of our veterans. The dental clinic is a joke. Wait times are a joke. It’s horrible!

Sadly, the Salem VA center does not give a darn about the healthcare of veterans, especially in group 3 the nurse practitioner Holmgren!!! She needs to stop playing God and retire earlier than the end of this year! Most of the staff there state often, off the record, that she is just "phoning it in" and doesn't care anymore.... I can believe this because she never orders any diagnostic tests and just pushes pills in your face! In my humble opinion this is borderline malfeasance.

I would like to see 100% disabled veterans be given "without charging for part B" Medicare and Medicaid so we can go wherever we want anytime and not have to wait until we die to be seen at the VA.

The the "community care act" is a joke there you have to go through so much red tape and it's so difficult to see anyone when you need specialty care that you might as well just go ahead and pay for yourself or just suffer. I am almost amazed every time I go there just the level that the doctors and nurse practitioners care more about protecting the VA than healing veterans! I hate to say it but the nurse practitioners being in charge of a patient's healthcare is a joke! If the veterans administration can't afford to hire real doctors then they should just shut down..... I wish somebody would come in and do a total makeover of this facility and make it so they actually care about veterans! The last four years have been the worst I've ever seen and I wish someone would come into power that would just level this place fire everyone and let us get healthcare wherever we wanted, that would be so much better! I wonder how many veterans have died needlessly because of the malfeasance of this...