Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 09-12-08

1. Lawmakers To Accompany Peake On Tour Of Marion VAMC.
2. VA Tries To Reassure Congress On GI Bill Benefits Outsourcing.  
3. Papers Pleased To See VA Lift Ban On Voter Drives.  
4. VA, Service Organizations Object To USOC Paralympic Initiative.  
5. VA Roseburg To Break Ground On New Clinic. .  
6. VA Assists Hurricane Gustav Evacuees.  
7. Website Provides Information To Employers About TBI, PTSD.  
8. VA Official Alarmed By Reports On New Jersey, Pennsylvania Hospital Errors.  
9. VA Completes Purchase Of Land In Florida.  
10. Clinic In Louisiana Replaces One Destroyed By Hurricane Katrina.

1.      Lawmakers To Accompany Peake On Tour Of Marion VAMC.   In continuing coverage, the Southern Illinoisan (9/12) reports Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake "will tour the embattled Marion VA Medical Center and participate in a town hall meeting open to the public Saturday in Marion." Peake’s visit "has been highly anticipated by lawmakers eager to press forward with permanent procedural and administrative changes at the Marion VA since word of nine surgical deaths at the hospital due to staff negligence surfaced earlier this year." During his hospital tour, Peake will be joined by US Reps. Jerry Costello (D-IL), John Shimkus (R-IL), and Dick Durbin (D-IL).
      Paper Glad To See Peake "Finally" Visit Marion.   The sixth story in the Southern Illinoisan‘s (9/12) "Ups And Downs" column gives a thumbs up to the news that Peake "will finally make an appearance" at the Marion VAMC. Peake "needs to see firsthand what this institution has to offer and should meet with employees privately to get a true indication of how good or bad they think working conditions are at the hospital. Progress cannot be ensured until the top decision makers are aware of all the facts."

2.      VA Tries To Reassure Congress On GI Bill Benefits Outsourcing.   On its News Blog, the Chronicle Of Higher Education (9/11, Field) reported, "Veterans groups are up in arms over a plan to outsource the processing of new GI Bill education benefits." The groups "worry that an inexperienced contractor will not provide the same level of service as do employees of the Veterans Affairs Department." But the VA, "which announced its intention to hire a contractor in July, says the new law’s requirements will tax agency resources." On Thursday, however, Congress "entered the fray, demanding answers from VA administrators at a hearing" in the US House of Representatives. VA "officials…attempted to reassure the panel, noting that the contractors would be responsible only for developing and overseeing a ‘rules based’ automated claims-processing system. Agency employees, the officials stressed, would continue to review rejected claims, staff the department’s call center, and answer online inquiries."
      Inside Higher Ed (9/12, Redden) says US Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, "was most aggressive in his questioning, grilling VA officials on the wisdom of outsourcing the new system and its contingency plans if the contractor ultimately fails in its charge." Filner "said he would be writing a letter to the VA secretary asking for many more details about the bidding process before a contract is awarded."

3.      Papers Pleased To See VA Lift Ban On Voter Drives.   Connecticut’s Middletown Press (9/12) editorializes, "Score one" for Connecticut "Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and her colleagues" for pressuring the US Department of Veterans Affairs to lift its ban on voter registration drives at their facilities. In announcing that the ban was being lifted, VA Secretary James Peake said the VA’s new policy, which requires voting rights information to be posted in every veterans hospital, establishes "a uniform approach to helping…patients who need assistance to register and to vote." The Press argues the VA "had a little help in seeing the need for a change." The Bristol (CT) Press (9/12) runs the same editorial, while a related one in the St. Petersburg (FL) Times (9/12) says lifting the ban was "the least that should be done to honor" veterans’ sacrifices.
      Meanwhile, the Wilmington (DE) News Journal (9/12), which also agrees that the ban should have been lifted, remarks, "Why the ban was in place is curious." The News Journal adds, "Of course, disruption to patient care could be a concern. But for too long this has been a phantom excuse to deny former soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines the same opportunity that civilians get in deciding who will lead the country."

4.      VA, Service Organizations Object To USOC Paralympic Initiative.   On its website, MSNBC (9/11, Huus) reported, "With more than 31,000" US soldiers "left permanently disabled by conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan," the US Olympic Committee "is proposing a major initiative to expand sports-focused rehabilitation programs for disabled soldiers and…perhaps swell the ranks" of the US Paralympic team. But the effort "this year to secure federal funding for the Paralympics program has run afoul of traditional veterans service organizations and the Department of Veterans Affairs." A bill "approved by the House" and a similar measure "under consideration in the Senate would authorize $10 million a year from the VA budget for the USOC Paralympic initiative." VA official R. Keith Pedigo has "described the bill as ‘unnecessary.’" Meanwhile, "service organizations already in the business of providing adaptive sports opportunities worry that the USOC will inject too much competition into existing events run by the VA and its partners, including the National Veterans Wheelchair Games, the Golden Age Veteran Games and the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic."
      Golden Age Games A Destination For Vets From Ohio, California, Florida.   The Dayton (OH) Daily News (9/12, Bebbington) reports, "Veterans from the Dayton area traveled recently to Indianapolis to compete in the National Veterans Golden Age Games held Aug. 20-24 in Indianapolis." The event, "started in 1985, began that first year with only 115 participants, but drew more than 670 participants this year, said Kristi Bell, staff assistant" for the games’ public affairs coordinator.
      The Contra Costa (CA) Times (9/11, Treadway) reported California resident Earl Gertz "won the gold medal in the 50-yard backstroke" at this year’s games, which are "the largest sporting event in the world for senior veterans. Gertz "receives care at the VA Northern California Health Care System in Martinez."
      The third story in the Tampa Bay Newspapers‘ (9/12) "Get Outdoors" column reports four members of the "Bay Pines Panthers won" medals at this year’s games.

5.    VA Roseburg To Break Ground On New Clinic.   The Coos Bay (OR) World (9/12, Guzman) reports the groundbreaking for the Veterans Affairs Roseburg Healthcare System’s new clinic at the Pony Village Mall behind Safeway is set for Friday," but "the ground already is broken. On Aug. 28, workers started cutting away asphalt on the site." Since that time, the construction crew "has been grading the site and driving piles into the ground, said Sharon Carlson, assistant to the VA director." The World adds, "The Roseburg VA announced in April its plans to close its Bandon clinic and build a bigger facility at the Pony Village Mall."

6.      VA Assists Hurricane Gustav Evacuees.   In a press release on its website, Louisiana Tech University (9/2) noted that its Memorial Gymnasium sheltered 150 "Hurricane Gustav special needs evacuees" earlier this month. A Department of Veterans Affairs team was there to help the evacuees, and the team’s leader, Alan Perry, director of the VA’s Central California Health Care System, "said he…received a warm welcome and a great deal of assistance from the university." Perry added that after the team left Louisiana, it would be "heading to Tallahassee (Fla.)," to provide assistance for another hurricane.
      The Rustin (LA) Daily Leader (9/7) reported that when the VA team was winding up its operations at the Memorial Gym, Perry said, "The VA has gotten good at handling these kinds of events," and this particular operation has "been a very successful" one. The Leader adds, "Beyond a pair of arrests…for disorderly contact and trespassing," the Memorial Gym, "the only VA-operated shelter" in Louisiana, had "none of the mass fights or disturbances reported in the shelters in other parts of the state."
      In a separate article on shelters providing relief to Gustav evacuees, the Rustin (LA) Daily Leader (9/4) reported that Bill Davis, "Tech’s assistant campus police chief," said a disturbance at the Memorial Gym shelter had led to the arrest of two men, who were allegedly drinking and being disorderly.
      VA-Operated Shelter A "Well-Oiled Machine."   In a related editorial, the Rustin (LA) Daily Leader (9/3) praised the "amazing work" done by Gustav shelters, especially Louisiana Tech, "which…turned over its old gymnasium to federal emergency health officials for special needs care." The Leader called the shelter a "well-oiled machine."

7.      Website Provides Information To Employers About TBI, PTSD.   The syndicated "Sgt. Shaft" column, appearing in the Washington Times (9/11, Fales), reports the US Department of Labor "recently announced a new online resource to help employers in their employment of veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), two increasingly common battlefield conditions." The America’s Heroes at Work website "provides information about TBI and PTSD as well as tools and guidance on how to implement workplace accommodations and other services that benefit affected individuals." Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao unveiled the initiative at the National Press Club, along with a number of federal and private partners, including "representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs."

8.      VA Official Alarmed By Reports On New Jersey, Pennsylvania Hospital Errors.   The Philadelphia Inquirer (9/12, Goldstein) reports, "For several years now, hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been required to report medical mistakes and serious complications to state agencies charged with reducing medical errors." However, "some hospitals aren’t fully complying, undermining efforts to improve patient safety, experts say. In New Jersey, five of the state’s 80 hospitals failed to report a single preventable mistake last year, officials said." In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, "some facilities didn’t report any serious events or even the near misses that might have harmed patients. ‘I don’t know how many is enough, but zero is a bad number,’ said James Bagian, head of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for Patient Safety." Bagian added, "Anybody that is supposed to report close calls and has zero reports is clueless. Management is asleep at the switch and just waiting until they kill someone."

9.      VA Completes Purchase Of Land In Florida.   WFTV-TV Orlando, FL (9/11, 6:17 p.m. ET) broadcast that the Department of Veterans Affairs "owns the land it needs to build a new hospital in Orlando." The VA "completed the purchase of 65 acres at Lake Nona." Crews can now "begin construction of the hospital and nursing home."
      The Orlando (FL) Sentinel (9/12, Owens) reports, "The 65-acre parcel in southeast Orlando will house the $656 million, 314-bed VA facility, one of the crown jewels in a 600-acre ‘medical city’ at Lake Nona being pieced together by the Tavistock Group." Barry Stanley, spokesman for the Orlando VA Medical Center, said the land cost approximately $39 million. The Sentinel adds, "Construction is set to begin next year, and the state-of-the art facility would open its doors…in 2012."
      The Orlando (FL) Business Journal (9/12) reports, "Upon completion," the center, "is expected to achieve" the US Green Building Council’s LEED Silver certification, "be able to serve 400,000 Central Florida veterans and provide up to 2,500 jobs."

10.    Clinic In Louisiana Replaces One Destroyed By Hurricane Katrina.   The Daily Journal Of Commerce (9/11) reported the US Department of Veterans Affairs "has taken a modular approach to its new outpatient clinic in St. John Parish." The old clinic "was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina," so "the VA’s Southeast Louisiana Veterans Healthcare System hired Berwyn, Pa.-based MedBuild, MedBuild to design a permanent, multi-functional, modular facility to address the needs of the area’s dense veteran community." MedBuild and the VA "designed the building to withstand severe weather." The facility marked its official grand opening in July."