Dallas vs Phoenix vs San Diego VA

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Pharmacy Kid

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I have some phone interviews lined up and would like the scoop on each VA site. How is the work life balance and work culture? Is leadership supportive and are the pharmacies decently staffed?

San Diego is at the top of my list simply because of the city. Everyone I have met has only good things to say about SD. Phoenix and Dallas are tied for second.

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I have some phone interviews lined up and would like the scoop on each VA site. How is the work life balance and work culture? Is leadership supportive and are the pharmacies decently staffed?

San Diego is at the top of my list simply because of the city. Everyone I have met has only good things to say about SD. Phoenix and Dallas are tied for second.
Are you interviewing for a supervisor or staff? It makes a difference.
 
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Phoenix is...I am sure you are aware of the scandals, not sure if it improved since then. I have heard bad things about San Diego in terms of working crazy hours, but I also heard it is better staffed than my old VA (as I am sure every VA is). Not sure about Dallas.
 
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I have some phone interviews lined up and would like the scoop on each VA site. How is the work life balance and work culture? Is leadership supportive and are the pharmacies decently staffed?

San Diego is at the top of my list simply because of the city. Everyone I have met has only good things to say about SD. Phoenix and Dallas are tied for second.

Is Dallas actually Dallas, or will they be shifting you to Waco occasionally?
 
Ok, will send a PM later but publicly:

Phoenix: Unrelated to the current news scandal, the old Director and cronies screwed over enough people to draw the VA equivalent of an Admirals Mast, the AIB. More or less, rank and file routinely can get away with anything as the management has been put on a PIP or demoted and the ranks are exacting well earned payback. If I were an alcoholic who needed to get away with AWOL or missing movement or a narcotic thief, this is the station to be.

San Diego. The current Director sacked the Associate Director (so bad that he became a soccer coach and left the profession). Clinical leadership is apathetic. If you staff, the philosophy is that you do both clinical and operations and rotate. Very poor relations with UCSD.

Dallas which is NTX and not Waco is a station that has a fairly no drama station. It sends its ******s to the mail order. Regional oversight is well known to be horrible (not pharmacy but oversight) and a lot of dumb policies come down from there.
 
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Ok, will send a PM later but publicly:

Phoenix: Unrelated to the current news scandal, the old Director and cronies screwed over enough people to draw the VA equivalent of an Admirals Mast, the AIB. More or less, rank and file routinely can get away with anything as the management has been put on a PIP or demoted and the ranks are exacting well earned payback. If I were an alcoholic who needed to get away with AWOL or missing movement or a narcotic thief, this is the station to be.

San Diego. The current Director sacked the Associate Director (so bad that he became a soccer coach and left the profession). Clinical leadership is apathetic. If you staff, the philosophy is that you do both clinical and operations and rotate. Very poor relations with UCSD.

Dallas which is NTX and not Waco is a station that has a fairly no drama station. It sends its ******s to the mail order. Regional oversight is well known to be horrible (not pharmacy but oversight) and a lot of dumb policies come down from there.

Wow thanks for the insight.
 
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While we have the thread going, how is Tampa, Orlando, Miami, West Palm Beach (basically anywhere worth living in Florida), and Little Rock?

Pretty sure I just doxxed myself with that question but c'est la vie.
 
While we have the thread going, how is Tampa, Orlando, Miami, West Palm Beach (basically anywhere worth living in Florida), and Little Rock?

Pretty sure I just doxxed myself with that question but c'est la vie.

VISN 8 (Florida and South Georgia) is run competently and their pharmacy regional director is one of the few people that I make it a point not to cross. Almost all of our Italian Mafia (About Pharmacy Benefits Management Services - Pharmacy Benefits Management Services) have been through one of these stations on their ascendancy under this regional director starting from when he was a hospital director. Orlando is the newest station and has had some major issues on activation (superunderstaffed with juniors while opening a new hospital). Tampa is the long established hospital in the area but has this odd relationship where Bay Pines is the real administrative head of the area. I don't hear much from Miami, but it does seem to have a fairly straightforward oversight. WPB is usually the best managed of all the stations in FL, although I would probably recommend Bay Pines or Tampa if I were training. Easily the most liberal and most intolerant of gay bashing (if you harbor homophobic/anti-bi tendencies, this is not the place to practice as both the patients and the practitioners are either sympathetic or are such).

NLR is considered to have some real issues with having too many restrooms in the old buildings and there are major EEO tensions arising from that. Several of the Chief Analysts of VHA and the CIO for analytic data both come from and live there, and NLR is one of the strongest informatics and analytics. For training, Fayettesville is considered to be better.
 
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While we have the thread going, how is Tampa, Orlando, Miami, West Palm Beach (basically anywhere worth living in Florida), and Little Rock?

Pretty sure I just doxxed myself with that question but c'est la vie.

Heard no complaints from people working at Little Rock.
 
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VISN 8 (Florida and South Georgia) is run competently and their pharmacy regional director is one of the few people that I make it a point not to cross. Almost all of our Italian Mafia (About Pharmacy Benefits Management Services - Pharmacy Benefits Management Services) have been through one of these stations on their ascendancy under this regional director starting from when he was a hospital director. Orlando is the newest station and has had some major issues on activation (superunderstaffed with juniors while opening a new hospital). Tampa is the long established hospital in the area but has this odd relationship where Bay Pines is the real administrative head of the area. I don't hear much from Miami, but it does seem to have a fairly straightforward oversight. WPB is usually the best managed of all the stations in FL, although I would probably recommend Bay Pines or Tampa if I were training. Easily the most liberal and most intolerant of gay bashing (if you harbor homophobic/anti-bi tendencies, this is not the place to practice as both the patients and the practitioners are either sympathetic or are such).

NLR is considered to have some real issues with having too many restrooms in the old buildings and there are major EEO tensions arising from that. Several of the Chief Analysts of VHA and the CIO for analytic data both come from and live there, and NLR is one of the strongest informatics and analytics. For training, Fayettesville is considered to be better.
Hah, didn't expect a serious answer to all of these but I appreciate it. Interesting about NLR and informatics.. I'll keep this in mind.
 
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I have some phone interviews lined up and would like the scoop on each VA site. How is the work life balance and work culture? Is leadership supportive and are the pharmacies decently staffed?

San Diego is at the top of my list simply because of the city. Everyone I have met has only good things to say about SD. Phoenix and Dallas are tied for second.
Are you getting out of the corps?
 
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