US Senator Claire McCaskill visited southern Missouri Tuesday to announce that her office will survey veterans there on the care they receive at local VA facilities. As KSMU’s Jennifer Davidson reports, thousands of vets in more urban areas have already taken McCaskill’s survey.
The Senator told a small group of veterans at the VA Clinic in West Plains that clinics in Kansas City and St. Louis are seeing their patient satisfaction rates climb upward after being held accountable for long wait times and poor communication. This survey, she said, has been part of that effort.
She calls it the Veterans Customer Satisfaction Program, and it’s a confidential survey that gives Missouri veterans a way to offer feedback on the quality of care they’re getting. The survey has been conducted for four years, but only in St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia.
Starting soon, veterans who seek care at the facilities in Poplar Bluff and West Plains can also participate in the feedback program. McCaskill told reporters the survey does not specifically address mental health care – something that rural areas face an acute shortage of – but veterans can include in the survey details about any issues they’re facing with the VA.
If you’re a veteran in southern Missouri and you’d like to participate in the survey, you can click here. You can also get a copy of the survey at your local VA facilility in southern Missouri, McCaskill said.