I've come to expect lower standards at VA hospital...

I've come to expect lower standards at VA hospitals. So as far as Veterans Hospitals are concerned...they are slightly above average. As with most VA hospitals, they serve a large area and huge population so they are consistently overcrowded and understaffed. That being said, the Audie Murphy has slightly better staffing than other places I've been. It's fine for checkups and tests and things of that nature. They do have a fairly up-to-date medical equipment. Nevertheless, you take your life in your hands if you opt for major surgical procedures here. It's not that they are staffed by the worst doctors and nurses...it's just that they are overcrowded and understaffed and constantly busy...so they screw up a lot. I saw a man in the middle of a stroke get taken out of the emergency room by a highly unqualified, heavily tattooed nurse's aide, and get re-routed from immediate surgery...to a clinic waiting room where he nearly died before they figured out the doctor was waiting for him in the ICU. It was the patients waiting for a stress test (myself included) who notified the hospital that he didn't belong there where he was dropped off...because he was literally dumped from a wheel chair into the chair and couldn't sit up straight when the nurse's aide left him. On another occassion, I saw a crazy nurse who looked like she was in her 80's searching the waiting room with a geiger counter and checking all of the trash bins and everyone there. Just a side note...the geiger counter was going off like crazy.