South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS)
Why I Get My Care Here
Retired SGM Brenda Hoster holds up a photo of herself from her active duty days. - Photo by Robin Risemas, Office of Public Affairs
Many Veterans, when coming through the doors of our facility, think that no one here can possibly understand what they are going through; after all, we’re just government employees. Those Veterans would be wrong.
Of the 3266 employees in the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS), 1489 are Veterans themselves, that’s almost 50%! Here is one of their stories.
Retired SGM Brenda Hoster, Surgical Service, spent 21 ½ years in the United States Army as a Public Affairs Specialist and retired in 1996. A 60% service connected Veteran, Hoster has been a VA patient since 1996 and an employee with STVHCS since November 2010.
Hoster says “I have 90% of my health care needs taken care of through the VA and as an employee working in Surgical Service, I have a better appreciation for the health care providers who take care of Veterans like me on a daily basis.”
She goes on to say, “The stigma attached to VA health care is unfair and generally founded on past practices. Now I can help ‘change’ that stigma, as a Veteran employee who receives care here.”
Hoster says being a Veteran employee and getting her care here provides her the opportunity to talk with other Veterans while sitting as a patient in a clinic waiting to see her care provider. “The ability to get that kind of feedback, make observations on care, etc, is a valuable asset to this facility,” she says. She also states “I also have a better understanding of my Veteran benefits as a patient and as an employee, and I learn a little more each day. I have always shared what I know in this regard with other Veterans and will continue to do so, but now I know a lot more as well.”
Just one of many Veteran employees within the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Hoster encourages all Veterans to use the benefits they earned and hopes that her story, as well as others, will encourage those Veterans who might be hesitating, to come in and seek their care with the VA, after all, we provide world class health care that is second to none!
