VA Northeast Outpatient Clinic

While I do expect to wait, I always receive wonderful care
from the staff. The nurse practitioners Lisa Ataae & Thuy Nygen are fabulous. They are very knowledgeable and empathetic. As a veteran, I feel I am very well served at this clinic.

Worse va clinic that you can go. They don't care about veterans.

It is nearly impossible to schedule an appointment with primary care at the Walzem clinic. When calling the phone line, you are placed on hold for long periods of time and then redirected to an enrollment/eligibility office. Sending a secure message for an appointment doesn't seem to get answered either.

Was in an accident with my kids. The ambulance took me and my kids to a location where we could ALL be since my kids have to be with an adult. Needed surgery on my thumb, the VA denied me the surgery because they have openings in the Ortho Department and wanted to do their own x-rays. I had to spend 2 nights in the hospital due to "seat belt sign", they could have done the procedure while I was there, but no the VA had to be stupid and deny it, now I'm waiting 2 weeks for an appointment, just so they can do x-rays, then they will have to schedule me another appointment. Meanwhile, my thumb is numb, waiting for the VA, by the time everything happens I think I will have to get lawyers involved if my thumb is worse off due to the waiting. I don't trust Ortho anyways because my husband had total knee replacement and they only authorized 5 days of Physical Therapy. Idiots. Audie Murphy just finds ways to screw people over. Patient Advocacy is non existent because they don't answer phones and if you ho there they act like they are helping you, but they aren't really because nothing changes.

Constantly run late on appointments- Patients are left waiting sometimes an hour beyond their scheduled appointment time.
Rude receptionists- they will ignore you as long as possible, be dismissive. I understand clinics get busy. If the doc is behind, let the patient know on check in. Receptionist is to dead set on getting you away from their desk that they won't say a thing until you ask why it's taking so long.

Doctors rush patients- because they run behind, other patient's care gets rushed. The doctors just want to get you through as quick as possible, which can be risky. I went in to see the Dr about coming off my sleep medications. The provider who saw me discontinued them immediately. When I asked her if I should titrate down, she said no that it would be fine. I am so glad I did not listen to her. I confirmed with a specialist at the Audie Murphy VA that confirmed my feat that this was not the right process and could be extremely harmful. So now instead of the Dr help me, I have to be concerned with them hurting me... just great.

I will say that not all providers are like that. The only provider at this facility that has ever taken her time to listen to my concerns and actually address them properly was NP Bricout. She constantly listens to what my concerns/issues are and even does follow up herself, not via her nurse. She is quick to call with any abnormal results and makes sure the patient understands their care plan.

Lab- hours are not consistent. The VA site says that the lab is open he same hours as the facility, but this is incorrect. Som times they stay open until 3:30pm, other days its 2:45pm or maybe 3pm. It is very frustrating. Might as well just drive all the way to the Audie Murphy hospital for this.

When brought to their attention, all you get is backhanded apologies but no real change. No accountability. Very poorly run clinic, one of the worst I've experienced. I would rather drive across town and deal with traffic at the Audie Murphy VA hospital than deal with the staff at Walzem VA clinic.

The South Texas VA has some dedicated staff who truly care about Veterans, but the system as a whole feels inconsistent and difficult to navigate. Communication between clinics is often slow, and getting accurate information or timely follow-up can be a challenge. Scheduling and referrals are especially frustrating — policies announced by the VA don’t always match what frontline staff are actually doing, which leads to confusion and unnecessary barriers to care. There’s potential for this facility to provide much better service, but right now the coordination and consistency just aren’t where they should be. I hope to see improvements, especially in training, communication, and patient support, because Veterans in this region deserve better. And let’s be honest: South Texas VA is facing serious systemic problems. Two Veterans have died by suicide in the hospital parking lot this year - the most recent yesterday. These failures in communication and access are not minor. They are dangerous.

Nurse Thủy Nguyễn was absolutely amazing. She was kind, nice, and she cared a lot and handled my appointment well. The staff was very quick with my medical care and I will absolutely come here again.

Excellent service and great staff.

The VA Northeast Walzem Clinic's Team 3 absolutely and without a doubt provided the very best medical care I have ever received in the 43 years I have received military health care. They are patient, knowledgeable, caring, sincere & do everything to make us feel not like a broken old retiree...Team 3, especially NP Nguyen & Erica, is a team that is 100% strengths - I appreciate them greatly and will NEVER trust my care to anyone else ever again!

Understaffed, even if you’re just going in for labs expect to wait min 1 hour most times more. I don’t think we should have to wait hours past our scheduled time.