Veterans don't appear to enjoy their time at the main Veterans Affairs medical clinic in Columbus.

The Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center scored 46.5 percent on overall quality in the most recent survey of patient health-care experiences. Including some nearby community clinics, the Columbus area scored 48.7 percent overall.

Veterans have long complained about difficulty in getting timely appointments, having to travel for inpatient care (the Wylie center handles only outpatient visits), poor coordination of treatment for multiple conditions, and not being taken seriously. But the percentages have never come in this low.

Those numbers are not what they seem, Veterans Affairs officials say. For one thing, the latest survey was changed completely.

The Columbus area had an overall quality score of 78 percent in 2007 and 81 percent in 2008, beating the national averages. That was using the old survey, which asked patients to rank their experiences on a scale of 1 to 5. The overall-quality measure counted only the people who ranked their experiences a 4 or 5.

The new survey asks some new questions, asks some old ones differently, and asks patients to rank their experiences on a 10-point scale. Only rankings of 9 or 10 count toward the overall-quality percentage.

Scores across the country have fallen in the new survey, said Dr. Joseph Francis, the deputy chief quality and performance officer for the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

The national score for overall quality in 2008 was 78.2 percent. It was 56.5 percent through the first quarter of 2009, the period that the most recent survey covered.

Columbus now appears to fall below the national average. However, because of the survey's margin of error, Columbus might be in line with the national average.

It's impossible to compare the results of the two surveys, Francis said. There is no way to tell whether a clinic that ranked poorly in 2008 has improved or worsened in 2009. For all the department knows, the new 56.5 percent might be the equal of the old 78.2 percent.

But no matter the percentages, central Ohio veterans complain about the care they receive, especially at the Wylie Center, which sees about 1,200 patients a month. The clinic moved to 420 N. James Rd. in November, about the midpoint of the survey period.

Most veterans who have visited the new facility say they appreciate it. But the old problems have followed some of them to the new place. They still say they aren't getting the treatment they deserve.

"Here's a pill. Come back in six months," is what many of the treatments amount to, said Nolan Osborne, 39, of Clintonville. Osborne deployed with the Army to Kosovo in 2000 and 2001.

In some cases, veterans have complained loudly enough to get official attention. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, met with central Ohio veterans and veterans' advocates on March 9 to discuss their concerns.

"The meeting was about collecting information and determining a federal response," said Meghan Dubyak, a Brown spokeswoman.

Richard Isbell, who coordinates Veterans Affairs issues and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance for Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, said veterans regularly call him with gripes. At times, he has contacted the clinic to get individual issues sorted out.

Isbell said he always tries to get the other side of the story, and he appreciates that the recent move into a new facility inevitably caused problems. But he said he hears some complaints, especially the difficulty of scheduling appointments, over and over.

"They need to step back and think about the people they need to be helping," Isbell said of VA officials.

One area where the Columbus facility fell significantly below the national average was in pharmacy mailings. Veterans reported their satisfaction with the process of calling the facility's pharmacy and having prescription drugs mailed to them.

That low score might have been the result of a phone-system problem in the early days of the new building, said John Glacken, associate director of the Wylie clinic.

Citing positives about the new site, Glacken said it offers more parking, more room, a bigger staff and a bigger range of procedures it can perform.

The clinic's internal numbers show that 98 percent of patients who need mental-health follow-up appointments get them within 15 days of their first appointment, Glacken said. Many veterans who complain about the timeliness of treatment cite mental-health appointments.

"It's better," said Marvin Heskett, 27, of Upper Arlington, who served in the Army and Army Reserve. "I just got assigned to an Iraqi Freedom liaison. He's a great guy and does what he can."

Heskett, though, said it took him about a year to get screened for post-traumatic stress disorder, and a year of arguing before he had a heart catheterization.

The new facility is better, but he's running into the same problems with treatment, he said. "I feel that I am not getting the care that I should get."

jeb.phillips @dispatch.com