Day # 9.....The VA WAY.......There is no place like Home.......If one is in an accident far away from their house and enters a hospital for treatment the hospital is not responsible for their return to their home. However here is a twist, when you are Veteran and check into a clinic or VA hospital and you are a patient with a mental/abuse problem, this is altogether different. Say you are at Bristol Tn and you check in for help. There are no beds, so they transport you to Nashville and then 80-90% of the time transported all the way to Murfreesboro TN VA. Oh did I mention in an Ambulance that's a 298.6 mile road trip. Can you imagine that bill? If that isn't insane what is? Now the patient is at the VA for 2-6 days maybe more maybe less. But When it comes time to be returned home there isn't an Ambulance ride back. Yes I said it's not up to the hospital right? However, when you are a Veteran they can ship you anywhere they want to according to bed space. Have you ever heard of a civilian hospital doing this unless it was for EMERGENCY LIFE THREATENING CIRCUMSTANCES? This transporting was also done from Memphis Tn VA, Fort Campbell area Chattanooga TN. Most of the Veterans are either on a very limited or no income at all. So how do they send the Patient back to where they came from? The Greyhound bus. Most have no money, no place to go when they get off the 10-12 hour bus ride. Most of the bus depots are closed in the night, in the winter it's been down below zero. Nice right? I personally was involved with a situation that a Veteran was to arrive at 2AM in the coldest winter we had in awhile the depot was going to be closed when he arrived. To add to the horror this Vet would have no place to go until 9AM when the shelter he was going to opened. Now I and two other Nurses brought this situation to the social worker attention this was at 4 something in the afternoon on a Friday of a weekend. The social worker said; " What do I have to do with this?" and walked away. As an Ordained Minister I was able to get past the red tape and was given the Ministers home phone number to have arrangements for the Veteran to be picked up when the bus arrived. This is one of so many, many stories about how the Vets are released 298.6 miles from their homes. Remember these Veterans HAD NO SAY IN WHERE They WERE BEING TRANSPORTED TO! It is my intention for all of these stories to find their way to a person of power who can get an official investigation outside of the VA'S so-called in house policing system. That way the in house police investigators can not for warn the head people that they are coming. There is a joke that goes around the VA; " you know when the IG is coming, the sound of paper shredders are going at the speed of sound".