Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 7-28-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. VA Reviewing 45 IT Projects.  
2. House Passes Caregiver Bill, Two Other Veterans-Related Measures.  
3. Hunches Seen As Helpful In Avoiding Roadside Bombs. 
4. WWII Vet Attempts To Provide Service Dogs To Wounded US Soldiers.  
5. US Combat Brigade Exhibits High Crime Rate On Return From Iraq.  
6. Marines Institute Training Program In Hopes Of Decreasing Suicides.  
7. Mobile Vet Centers Being Made Available To Vets In Idaho, New York.  
8. VA Using Digital Imaging System To Enhance EHRs.  
9. Lawyer To File Claims For Vets Exposed To Infections.
10.  Tuscaloosa VAMC Hosting Waiting Room Events.

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HAVE YOU HEARD?
It started with the assassination of the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne. On July 28, 1914, Europe exploded when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. It was the War to End All Wars — The Great War. In many ways, World War I marked America’s entry onto the world stage. It certainly was costly: More than 4.7 million Americans fought during America’s two-year engagement; 53,402 died in battle. Among the soldiers was an underage Army recruit from Harrison County, Missouri, Frank Buckles. He was born in 1901. Today, he’s the last known American survivor of World War I. At his home in rural West Virginia, he’s still vibrant and asks visitors at his Web site (yes, his Web site!) to help support a new monument to World War I veterans. He stands as America’s last living reminder of that war – and of the sacrifices made by so many Veterans who helped usher America onto the world scene. Visit Frank at his Web site: www.frankbuckles.org.

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1.      VA Reviewing 45 IT Projects.   In continuing coverage, Modern Healthcare (7/27, Conn), publishing part one of a two-part series, noted that according to a recent joint announcement by Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and the agency’s Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology Roger Baker, the department "has tabled development work-and as much spending as possible-on 45 information technology projects, most of which involve healthcare IT systems. During the hiatus, VA brass will subject the projects to internal review and the strictures of a newly adopted IT project management scheme. The IT program reviews come in the wake" of a recently released report by the VA’s inspector general’s office "that chastised the department for its lack of IT management rigor. It also comes as a deadline looms for the VA to achieve its goal of making its clinical IT systems ‘interoperable’ with those of the Defense Department’s Military Health System."
      Federal CIO Praises VA’s Decision.   In a related story, the Federal Times (7/27, Castelli, 40K) said, "Anyone reviewing the status" of Federal IT "projects using the Obama administration’s new online ‘IT Dashboard’ will notice something interesting about" the VA’s "IT projects. More than half are colored red," which, according to the "dashboard’s color-coded grading scheme," signals "cost overruns and schedule delays that could be the result of poor management. Last week, VA’s new chief information officer, Roger Baker, backed by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, halted 45 projects that generate those red scores," and "White House officials say this is what they had hoped for when they launched the IT Dashboard in June. ‘I think all agencies should be heading down the path of what the VA’" has "’done,’ said Vivek Kundra," the Federal "chief information officer. ‘The approach should be an aggressive focus on project management and really distilling the complexities that have existed historically and trying to figure out what is going on.’ On Aug. 7, Kundra intends to press that message at a meeting" of the Federal Chief Information Officers Council.

2.      House Passes Caregiver Bill, Two Other Veterans-Related Measures.   In continuing coverage, CQ (7/28, Johnson) reports HR 3155, a "bill to authorize training and support for families caring for wounded" Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, "passed the House Monday." Veterans’ groups, however, "are not enthusiastic about" the measure, "saying they prefer a Senate version of the bill" that "would cover a broader number of veterans who suffered a serious injury in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." Veterans Affairs Department officials, meanwhile, "have testified to Congress that they have no desire to get into the business of training family caregivers." CQ adds, "The House passed two other veterans’ bills…on Monday." One of the measures, HR 3219, "aims to improve the insurance and medical benefits available to vets," while HR 2770 would "update the law applicable to VA-affiliated nonprofit research and education corporations." WGME-TV Portland, ME (7/27, 5:35 p.m. ET) also aired a report noting the House’s passage of HR 3155.

3.      Hunches Seen As Helpful In Avoiding Roadside Bombs.   In a front page story on ways in which US soldiers detect roadside bombs in Iraq, the New York Times (7/28, A1, Carey, 1.06M) says "high-tech gear, while helping to reduce casualties, remains a mere supplement to the most sensitive detection system of all – the human brain. Troops on the ground, using only their senses and experience, are responsible for foiling many" improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D., "attacks, and…they often cite a gut feeling or a hunch as their first clue." The Times says the "brains of elite

troops…appear to register perceived threats in a different way from the average enlistee, said Dr. Martin P. Paulus, a psychiatrist" at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. At the "sight of angry faces, members of the Navy Seals show significantly higher activation in the insula," where the "brain is thought to register the diverse sensations coming from around the body and interpret them as a cohesive feeling," than "regular soldiers, according to a just-completed study. ‘The big question is whether these differences perceiving threat are natural, or due to training,’ Dr. Paulus said."

4.      WWII Vet Attempts To Provide Service Dogs To Wounded US Soldiers.   On its website, Fox News (7/27, Keating, Gomez) said that when 85-year-old World War II veteran Irwin Stovroff "learned that the US government didn’t supply service dogs for wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan," the Florida resident "made it his mission to overhaul the policy." Since then, he "has raised nearly $2 million dollars to help train and match up service canines with wounded combat vets. Stovroff is also pushing lawmakers" for Federal "funding to finance the program that he says has received lots of bi-partisan praise." Fox News added that Strovoff’s "efforts are beginning to pay off. Earlier this month," US Rep. Ron Klein (D-FL) introduced the Wounded Warrior K-9 Corps Act, which would "would establish a grant program for organizations that provide wounded warriors and disabled veterans with service animals.

5.      US Combat Brigade Exhibits High Crime Rate On Return From Iraq.   In continuing coverage, the Washington Post (7/28, A3, Smith, 652K) reports US soldiers "returning from Iraq after serving" with the "3,500-soldier Fourth Infantry Division’s Fourth Brigade," a combat unit based out of Fort Carson, Colorado, "have exhibited an exceptionally high rate of criminal behavior in their home towns, carrying out a string of killings and other offenses that the ex-soldiers attribute to lax discipline and episodes of indiscriminate killing during their grueling deployment, according to a six-month investigation by the Colorado Springs Gazette newspaper." Members of the brigade "told the publication that the brutal conditions in Iraq from 2004 to 2007 and the Army’s failure to provide proper treatment for stress were in part to blame for the incidents of rape, domestic abuse, shootings, stabbings, kidnappings and suicides," the Gazette said. The Post notes that the Army "affirmed in a…report this month that ‘combat exposure/intensity, leadership, and barriers to seeking care’ may have increased the risks of ‘negative outcomes’" for ex-members of the brigade.

6.      Marines Institute Training Program In Hopes Of Decreasing Suicides.   USA Today (7/28, Zoroya, 2.29M) reports, "Faced with a rise in suicides among Marines, the service is ordering training for all immediate supervisors – sergeants and corporals – to become more involved and knowledgeable about the intimate details of the lives of their young charges." USA Today adds, "Through July 16, there have been 30 confirmed or suspected Marine suicides this year," while in 2008, there were 42, the "highest since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." Meanwhile, confirmed or suspected US Army "suicides have reached 88 this year, which is on pace to set another annual record, Army statistics show."

7.      Mobile Vet Centers Being Made Available To Vets In Idaho, New York.   The AP (7/27) said a "mobile counseling center for…veterans is visiting towns in eastern Idaho this week. The 38-foot motor coach," part of a US "Department of Veterans Affairs Vet Center program," is "equipped with confidential areas where counselors can give advice on readjusting to civilian life."
      The Watertown (NY) Daily Times (7/28, 27K) reports, "The Watertown Vet Center, which provides counseling to veterans and their families, will send a bus" to Massena, New York, on "Tuesday to help local veterans. The center will have representatives from the Syracuse chapter" of the Federal "Department of Veterans Affairs onboard."

8.      VA Using Digital Imaging System To Enhance EHRs.   In its May 2009 issue, FedTech magazine (7/28, Schwartz) says some US government healthcare facilities, including those run by the Veterans Affairs Department, "rely on networked digital imaging systems that let doctors and other health services providers across the country or the world consult on a patient’s diagnosis while looking at the same images – be they X-rays, MRIs or CT Scans. These picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) can give radiologists, emergency room doctors, specialists and family health professionals access to patient images, no matter the location." And at the VA in particular, "PACS has allowed" a "sweeping consolidation. Clinicians at all 140 medical centers use a VA-developed PACS called VistA Imaging that handles images from all specialties. VistA Imaging is fully integrated with the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), an enterprisewide information network that provides a comprehensive electronic health record," or EHR, "for each patient in the medical system." Because the VA’s PACS "is part of VistA, ‘the system captures clinical images as well as scanned documents, video and other nontextual data files, making them part of the patient’s’" EHR, "says Dr. Ruth E. Dayhoff, VistA Imaging director for the Veterans Health Administration. VistA Imaging integrates all images and reports with each patient’s" EHR, Dayhoff "says, making that information accessible to clinicians nationwide."

9.      Lawyer To File Claims For Vets Exposed To Infections.   The AP (7/28, Poovey) reports Mike Sheppard, an attorney from Nashville, "is preparing to ask" the US Department of Veterans Affairs "to pay disability benefits and damages for hospital mistakes that may have exposed veterans to infectious body fluids – a complaint that he said could ultimately multiply into many more such demands." Sheppard "said he is preparing to file claims with the VA for about 60 veterans," but he "also said other veterans among the roughly 10,000 affected former patients at VA hospitals in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Miami and Augusta, Ga., are likely to seek compensation beyond the VA’s offer of free medical care."
      WTKR-TV Norfolk, VA (7/27, 11:22 p.m. ET), WRCB-TV Chattanooga, TN (7/27, 11:16 p.m. ET), WDEF-TV Chattanooga, TN (7/27, 11:06 p.m. ET), WEAR-TV Mobile, AL (7/27, 10:25 p.m. CT), WKRN-TV Nashville, TN (7/27, 10:11 p.m. CT), WSMV-TV Nashville, TN (7/27, 10:02 p.m. ET), WATE-TV Knoxville, TN (7/27, 6:29 p.m. ET), WTVC-TV Chattanooga, TN (7/27, 5:33 p.m. ET), WALB-TV Albany, GA (7/27, 5:22 p.m. ET), and WJBF-TV Augusta, GA (7/27, 5:19 p.m. ET) all aired similar reports.

10.    Tuscaloosa VAMC Hosting Waiting Room Events.   The Tuscaloosa (AL) News (7/27, Avant) said that as "crews at the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center renovate parts of the hospital, they have made waiting rooms more comfortable and home-like with features such as sofas and flat-screen TVs." Now, however, a "team of VA employees is taking it a step further, holding everything from bingo games and ice cream parties to cakewalks in the hospital’s waiting rooms." The "effort is part of a newly formed Customer Service Improvement Team the VA calls the CSI Team, which formed in April. Besides entertaining the veterans, the hospital also wants to know other ways it can improve," according to "Connie Booth, a management analyst and events coordinator at the VA, who said, "We talk and visit with the patients, ask them if they had any questions or concerns." The AP (7/27) published a similar story, while WBRC-TV Birmingham, AL (7/27, 9:32 p.m. CT) aired a similar report.