Bessemer VA Clinic

"The VA Bessemer Clinic staff is always efficient and respectful to my Father and we as his children. Dr. Cooley takes the time to listen from the heart and provide valuable feedback."

"We relocated from another state and Bessemer VA was quick to schedule appointment for my husband as well as insure additional appointments were arranged for additional specialty clinics. We were very impressed with the provider as well as the staff. We appreciated their efficiency as well as their caring attitudes. Made this part of our relocation a relief. Additionally, every clinic we have encountered between Bessemer and Birmingham has been very positive, professional, and efficient!"

"Quality medical care. Recommended to all Vets."

"My appt. Was canceled went in had another date set up and made other appointments while there no problems."

"A very few VA employees while Most Need to learn that their job could be in Jeapordy. VA employees who allow the phone to ring should NOT BE Working Anywhere! Especially before going home for the Day & Even More so During Friday Afternoon after 4 PM until 5 PM! Please Read the Following Approved by the Senate yesterday led by Senator Marco Rubio (R- FL): The new Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act would affect 340,000 VA employees, about a sixth of the federal workforce. It would lower the standard of evidence for managers to pursue discipline or termination for performance or misconduct. Senior executives would have 21 days to fight action against them through an internal appeal board. VA would have 15 days to take action against rank-and-file employees once managers build a case, and appeals by employees to their union or the government-wide panel on personnel decisions would need to be completed within 180 days. Under the current system, appeals and agency action can drag on for years. Employees would not be paid while they appeal, as they are now. And those who lose their cases would have to pay back the government for any bonuses and relocation expenses. The bill also boosts protections for whistleblowers to help ensure they are not retaliated against for reporting wrongdoing. The legislation tones down language that cleared the House in March largely on party lines. But while the co-sponsors in the Senate, Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and the panel’s top Democrat, Jon Tester (Mont.), agreed to changes that brought back some union protections, it still represents a watershed for civil service protections. While Tester said the bill does not open the door to other changes to civil service protections, congressional Republicans see Trump’s election as an opportunity to enact long-pursued changes across the government. Those include ending automatic raises, greenlighting the firing of poor performers across government, banning union business on government time and pension reductions. Democrats were emphatic that VA will continue to protect employees’ rights to union representation and to appeal action the agency takes against them. “This bill does not trample on workers’ rights,” Tester said. “It maintains the bargaining rights of union workers. It does not gut due-process protections.” But the union, which represents more than 230,000 VA workers, expressed concern that good employees could be wrongly targeted. “We just want to make sure that the overwhelming majority of excellent VA employees don’t get caught up in the mix,” J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. “Remember, it wasn’t the frontline employees we represent who ordered secret waitlists.” The Senior Executives Association, which represents about 6,000 top career employees in the government, was more critical, calling the legislation’s “exclusive focus on punitive accountability measures” unfair and a return to the patronage spoils system that dominated the federal workforce until the 1880s. VA Secretary David Shulkin has said that problem employees represent a small minority. But bad apples who linger on the payroll, either at work or getting paid at home, are hurting morale and recruitment, he contends. The political advocacy group Concerned Veterans for America, part of a network of politically active nonprofit groups backed by the industrialist Koch brothers and other wealthy conservative donors, pushed hardest for change. In recent months, CVA spent more than $100,000 targeting red-state Democrats and moderate Republicans in digital ads, phone calls and emails in 18 states, officials said. Related: Read more at PowerPost"