The Day a Doctor Said Yes ★ Premium
October 27, 2026 · 26 min read
Twenty-four veterans at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center died in 2022 and 2023 with a community care consult still unscheduled, and the chief of community care emailed their names to her team. This issue follows one referral from that hospital through the seven steps it travels between VA and the private doctor at the other end, finds the one date VA cannot produce, explains why six scheduling fixes since 2000 each repaired a single step, and sets out four things, each with an owner, that would give the trip a clock.