Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 7-30-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Baker: Shinseki’s Support Key To IT Overhaul Plan.  
2. Two Elon University Graduate Schools Participating In Yellow Ribbon Program.  
3. Dingell Concerned About Parking Situation At VA Hospital In Michigan.  
4. Philippine President To Meet With Shinseki.  
5. Syracuse VAMC Opens New Rehab Clinic, Prosthetics Lab.  
6. Ground Broken On Veterans Housing Facility.  
7. Blogger Praises Palo Alto VA’s Mental Health Center.  
8. GAO Gives Mixed Review To VA’s Handling Of Disability Claims.  
9. VA, Defense Said To Have Achieved Three Of Six EHR Interoperability Objectives.  
10. Citing Medicare, VA Success, Obama Defends Healthcare Plan.  

1.      Baker: Shinseki’s Support Key To IT Overhaul Plan.   In continuing coverage, InformationWeek (7/30, Hoover) reports, "The Department of Veterans Affairs has experienced a number of well-publicized IT failures, most recently the February collapse of a patient scheduling application project that was 17 months behind schedule and 110% over budget." But "new CIO, Roger Baker, is updating the department’s project management processes, and he plans to revamp or cut projects that are over budget and behind schedule." InformationWeek notes that when it asked Baker for some background regarding his plans, he explained that when the patient scheduling application failed, the agency’s secretary, Gen. Eric Shinseki "ordered a complete review of all ongoing IT projects at Veterans Affairs," which eventually led to the suspension of 45 projects that "were more than a year behind schedule or 50% over budget." Baker added, "Not everybody believes that was a good idea, but the bottom line is that we are going to change systems development inside Veterans Affairs, and the only way you make a decision like that is with a secretary who’s willing to stand up for it."

2.      Two Elon University Graduate Schools Participating In Yellow Ribbon Program.   In continuing coverage, The Pendulum (7/29, Corby), Elon University’s Student Newspaper, noted that two of Elon’s "graduate programs will participate in a new scholarship agreement meant to improve financial aid for veterans returning to school. Elon’s school of law and physical therapy will each offer three $5,000 scholarships to veterans," and through the Yellow Ribbon Program, a "provision of the newly established Post-9/11 GI Bill," that "money would be matched by funds" from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Pendulum, which noted that "in a recent statement," VA Secretary Eric Shinseki called the "Post-9/11 GI Bill…an important part of fulfilling our promise" to US veterans, added, "Elon is joined by 44 other North Carolina private and public universities and colleges planning to provide financial incentives to veterans."

3.      Dingell Concerned About Parking Situation At VA Hospital In Michigan.   In continuing coverage, the WXYZ-TV Detroit, MI (7/29) website reported, "A powerful Michigan congressman is reacting to an Action News investigation" from "our chief investigative reporter Steve Wilson." Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) is reacting to a "story about the parking situation at the downtown Detroit" Veterans Affairs "hospital that bears his name. In a letter from Dingell" to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, "the Congressman says ‘this is not the first time I’ve been made aware (of the problem), nor the first time I have tried to remedy it.’" WXYZ continued, "Just last November," Dingell "says he wrote to the director of the center that bears his name and Director Pamela Reeves responded that she was ‘in the process of making long term arrangements.’ ‘I am very troubled,’ the Congressman’s letter says, ‘that little or no progress has been made…’ to resolve the problem." WXYZ added, "Wilson’s original report to which the Congressman is responding featured" 84-year-old veteran Neil Devine, "who lost a leg in battle but walks 30 minutes from the parking ramp to get to his VA dentist on the far other side of the three-block-long facility. It would only take him 10 minutes if he could park…in the lot closest to the dental clinic," but "that lot…is open for employees only."

4.      Philippine President To Meet With Shinseki.   In a story offering details on what is expected be on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting between Philippines President Gloria Arroyo and US President Barack Obama, Philippines’ ABS-CBN News (7/30) notes that while she is in Washington, DC, Arroyo will also meet "with US Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki."

5.      Syracuse VAMC Opens New Rehab Clinic, Prosthetics Lab.   The Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard (7/30, Mulder) reports the Syracuse Veterans Affairs Medical Center "has opened a new outpatient rehabilitation clinic and a prosthetics lab to serve the growing number of soldiers coming home from war with injuries." The new facilities "will support the VA’s long-awaited spinal cord injury center." The Post –Standard added that construction on that "30-bed inpatient unit, part of a six-story $78 million addition, is expected to begin in September."

6.      Ground Broken On Veterans Housing Facility.   The New Bedford (MA) Standard-Times (7/30, Ledoux) reports, "People traveled from as far away as Minnesota for Wednesday’s ground-breaking for the Sean Brooke House, a project that will provide veterans with a safe, affordable and permanent place to live." A group known as "Welcome Home Veterans Housing joined with Caritas Communities, a nonprofit organization that has been responsible for developing similar housing for low-income individuals in the Boston area, and together secured a Massachusetts Housing and Community Development Grant, as well as other grants and donations to renovate the Old Sweater/Carriage Mill on North Street." The Standard–Times adds, "A support group at the New Bedford Vet Center came to know" Sean Brooke, an Iraq vet killed by a drunk driver while he was stationed in Hawaii, "through letters and care packages they sent him while he was in the Middle East."

7.      Blogger Praises Palo Alto VA’s Mental Health Center.   In her Psych Central (7/29) blog, Alicia Sparks wrote, "It’s not scheduled to be complete until 2011, but exciting construction started earlier this month on what" could "be an impressive – and green – new mental health center for the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System." The facility "is the first of several reconstruction projects that will take place over the next five years within the Palo Alto VA, and according to Palo Alto Online, the new mental health center will" use "natural lighting, landscaping, and other therapeutic design elements to promote a healing environment." Sparks added, "I wholeheartedly believe in the power of ‘green’ recovery tools" such as natural "scenery, fresh air, and sunlight."

8.      GAO Gives Mixed Review To VA’s Handling Of Disability Claims.   On its website, CNN (7/29) noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs’ "handling of disability claims has seen improvements and setbacks, a congressional watchdog said Wednesday. ‘Over the past several years, VA disability claims workloads at both the initial and appellate levels have improved in some areas and worsened in others,’ the Government Accountability Office said in a report." The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee had "asked the GAO to present its preliminary findings on the processing of disability claims, which were under discussion at a committee hearing."

9.      VA, Defense Said To Have Achieved Three Of Six EHR Interoperability Objectives.   Modern Healthcare (7/30, Conn) reports, "The healthcare organizations of the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have met three of six objectives toward achieving what they have self-defined as ‘full interoperability’ between their respective" electronic health records (EHR) "systems and ‘partially achieved planned capabilities’ in the other three. However, those and the joint management program overseeing the project still need ‘additional work’ to meet a Sept. 30 deadline, according" to a 35-page report from the Government Accountability Office. In that report, the "congressional watchdog" also "said the DOD/VA Interagency Program Office ‘is not yet effectively positioned to function as a single point of accountability for the implementation of fully interoperable EHR systems or capabilities between DOD and VA.’"
      MHS Employee Says Contract Was Unethically Awarded.   NextGov (7/29, Brewin) said the Military Health System (MHS) "has engaged in unethical contracting with a technology company that is developing one of government’s most complex and high-profile computer networks, an electronic health record system that eventually will exchange information" with the VA, "internal e-mails sent within the Army Medical Command" and the MHS have alleged. Maj. Frank Tucker, "chief of product development for the Defense Health Information Management System" at the MHS, "said in an e-mail on July 15 that he was directed by Tommy J. Morris, acting director of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs, to provide Adara Networks Inc. with the software and documentation for the Defense Health Information Management System on the premise that the company would not compete for development contracts." But Tucker "alleged in an e-mail provided" to NextGov "that the company was awarded a sole-source contract." He "wrote in his e-mail that the contract was ‘unethical considering we gave them code for most of the code for MHS, giving them an unfair’" competition advantage. The "Defense Department inspector general plans to investigate Tucker’s allegations, and Ellen Embry, acting assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, has started an internal investigation, said Cynthia Smith, a Defense Department spokeswoman."

10.    Citing Medicare, VA Success, Obama Defends Healthcare Plan.   The Wall Street Journal (7/30, Weisman, 2.01M) reports, "President Barack Obama, acknowledging the rising protests against" his health care reform "efforts, took some of the sharpest jabs yet at his opponents, accusing them of rallying opposition with scare tactics and hypocrisy." On Wednesday, Obama "spent much of a town-hall meeting" in Raleigh, North Carolina, "trying to gain back his footing on the health-care debate. He mocked some Americans who say, ‘I don’t want socialized medicine, and by the way, don’t take away my Medicare,’ saying that Medicare and the Veterans Administration have been operating ‘government run’ health care with relatively high rates of approval from their clientele." He added, however, that nobody "is talking about some government takeover of health care." In Washington, DC, meanwhile, the news for Obama "was mixed," as House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman "conceded the House wouldn’t vote on a health-care plan before its August recess." But Waxman also "said that his committee will resume meetings on health-care legislation Wednesday after reaching an agreement with conservative Democrats." The Washington Post (7/30, Wilson, 652K) and a report aired by WSOC-TV Charlotte, NC (7/29, 6:04 p.m. ET) also point out that Obama said Medicare and the VA have high satisfaction rates.