CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Beth Brown, director of the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, officially retired on Friday.
“I’ve been serving our veterans for 38 years, and it’s been an honor and a privilege,” said Brown, speaking on the MetroNews affiliated “The Mike Queen Show” on Thursday. “And I’ve had an opportunity to be in seven different states, at nine different VA’s. And I can say for every one of them our dedication and focus has always been about taking care of our veterans.”
Brown’s retirement comes almost a year after an audit revealed the Clarksburg site had a 54-day wait time for new patients seeking primary care physicians. The desired goal is a wait no longer than 14 days.
“Last year at this time we were under a lot of scrutiny regarding the ability to provide timely services to our veterans,” said Brown.
But Brown believes that things are slowly improving. The wait-time at the Clarksburg VA Hospital is down to 52 days thanks to a combination of listening to complaints and ideas during town halls and focus groups mixed with an embrace of new technology.
“I think what we will see and continue to see here in Clarksburg is always looking at how we can provide timely care to the patients at the right time at the right place,” she said.
But the long wait-time may be a by-product of other issues that plague the VA as a whole. Brown said that operating the hospital comes with recruitment challenges, and that the VA has to get creative when it comes to bringing in the right people.
“We will never be the leader as far as it goes to salaries,” she said.
The VA does offer a debt-reduction program for physicians leaving medical school with vast amounts of debt. They’re expecting to add several physicians leaving medical school this year.
Brown said that it’s easier to get doctors to stay in the area once they’re here, but it’s harder to convince people to leave other areas to come here.
“Once they get here they love it and become very content and embrace the culture and the livelihood of what goes on here,” she said.
Despite the challenges facing VA Hospitals in rural areas, Brown also said that comes with it’s own inherent advantage.
“Because we are a very small, tight-knit community, they know their patients very well,” she said.
Dr. Glen Snyder, Chief of Staff at the Hospital, will serve in the role of director on an interim basis–the second time he’s filled those shoes in that capacity.