Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 9-01-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Shinseki’s "Prescient Admonition" On Adapting To Change Noted.  
2. Marine Hurt By Vaccine Not Eligible For Traumatic Injury Benefit.  
3. VA Officials, Lawmakers Discuss Veterans Program With USF Students.  
4. Vet Tells Lawmaker About "Wonderful" VA Health Care.  
5. Company Raises Money To Promote EMR Software Invented By VA.  
6. Flying Again Is Freedom For A Veteran Helicopter Pilot And Double Amputee.
7. Jury Sides With Former Head Of Bay Pines VAMC In Libel Suit.  
8. "Management Shortcomings" Blamed For Failure Of Patient Scheduling Project.  
9. O’Malley To Name Two Cabinet Appointments, Including Chow As Maryland VA Secretary.  
10. VA Doctor Offers New Take On Differences In Sleep Quality.

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HAVE YOU HEARD?
The Washington, D.C., VA Medial Center (DCVAMC) is the 2009 winner of the “Medallion of Excellence,” the highest honor presented for organizational achievement by the U.S. Senate Productivity and Quality Awards of Virginia (SPQA). The SPQA uses the National Malcolm Baldrige Award criteria to rate organizations in all segments of enterprise — manufacturing, health care, service industries, education and government — on business practices reflecting “visionary leadership, customer-driven operations, value of employees and partners to the organization, focus on results, and innovation.” Not since 2006 has the judging committee recognized an organization with its highest achievement award. The Medical Center achieved this recognition on its first application attempt. It consistently scores high in patient satisfaction surveys with nearly 85 percent of patients describing access to hospital services as excellent. Its Patient Service Center ensures all incoming calls are answered within 30 seconds. The “paperless” hospital uses technology to improve patient care. Its success is reflected in its award-winning discharge summary program, designation as a “Most Wired” hospital, and its telehealth initiatives. DCVAMC was the first in the nation to put EKG’s on Blackberries, ensuring patients suffering chest pain get immediate, life-saving treatment. Outstanding outcomes in surgery, such as coronary artery bypass, top most in the private sector.

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1.      Shinseki’s "Prescient Admonition" On Adapting To Change Noted.   While giving a positive review in the Miami Herald (9/1, 224K) to "Six Pixels of Separation," Mitch Joel’s new book about "online marketing and networking," Richard Pachter writes, "I…liked Joel’s invocation of General Eric Shinseki’s prescient admonition, ‘If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less,’ a gentle and subtle reminder that those who fail to embrace the future will be stuck in the past."

2.      Marine Hurt By Vaccine Not Eligible For Traumatic Injury Benefit.   McClatchy (9/1, Goldstein) reports, "It wasn’t a bullet or roadside bomb that felled Lance Cpl. Josef Lopez three years ago after nine days in Iraq." Instead, it was a smallpox injection "into his arm before his unit left the states." While the "vaccine isn’t mandatory, the military strongly encourages troops to take it," but "it left Lopez in a coma, unable for a time to breathe on his own and paralyzed for weeks. Now he can walk, but with a limp." Lopez also "has to wear a urine bag constantly, has short-term memory loss and must swallow 15 pills daily to control leg spasms and other ailments. And even though his medical problems wouldn’t have occurred if he hadn’t been deployed, Lopez doesn’t qualify for a special government benefit of as much as $100,000 for troops who suffer traumatic injuries." Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs, "which oversees the benefit program, said they’re following what the agency has determined to be Congress’ intent," but US Sen. Claire McCaskill, "a Missouri Democrat and a member of the Armed Services Committee," has "drafted a bill named after Lopez to widen the program to include vaccine-related injuries." 

3.      VA Officials, Lawmakers Discuss Veterans Program With USF Students.   The St. Petersburg (FL) Times (9/1, Danielson) notes that the Department of Veterans Affairs "has launched a first-of-its-kind program" at the University of South Florida (USF). VetSuccess on Campus "puts a VA counselor on USF’s campus to help ex-military students with everything from tuition aid to housing assistance to getting treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries." On Monday, agency officials and US Rep. Sam Gibbons (D-FL) "met with USF students who have served in the military to hear how it’s going so far." The Times adds that "about two dozen USF students" attended the meeting and "had questions about the benefits available to them through the latest GI Bill as opposed to previous versions."
      The AP (9/1, Armario), which says VetSuccess on Campus is a pilot program run by the VA, reports USF "is the only university in the nation taking part in the pilot, which will last about a year. It will then be evaluated, and officials hope to implement it in other universities across the country."
      GI Bill Survey Aims To Determine If Benefits Are Being Received On Time.   In his "What’s Brewin’" blog for NextGov (8/26), Bob Brewin noted that the Washington-based Student Veterans of America (SVA) "has launched an online survey to help it determine whether veterans have received benefits under the new GI Bill on time." The SVA, "which includes a coalition of veterans groups
on campuses across the country, says it decided to conduct the survey as it needs ‘substantial data to effectively advocate on behalf of student veterans.’ The survey — if enough student vets respond — could also serve as an early warning indicator of whether or not the Veterans Affairs Department is living up to its promise to pay in a timely manner the claims of veterans enrolled this fall under the new GI Bill." Brewin added, "I have hunch the SVA survey will prove invaluable in the months to come."
      College In Tennessee Signs On For Yellow Ribbon Program.   Tennessee’s Blount Today (9/1) reports, "With a Maryville College Yellow Ribbon Scholarship, 50 qualified post-9/11 veterans could attend Maryville College this fall with no out-of-pocket expenses." Maryville "recently signed on to participate in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs’ Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program," which "allows institutions of higher learning (degree-granting institutions) in the United States to voluntarily enter into an agreement" with the VA "to fund tuition expenses that exceed the highest public in-state undergraduate tuition rate."  

4.      Vet Tells Lawmaker About "Wonderful" VA Health Care.   In continuing coverage, the Tomah (WI) Journal (9/1, Rundio, 4K) says after US Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) read a "column written by Sandra McAnany about the quality care that her grandfather," 83-year-old Lynn Nichols, receives at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Hospital, he "wanted to see for himself. ‘How have they been treating you?’ Kind asked the World War II veteran. ‘Wonderful,’ Nichols said," adding, "As far I can tell, everyone is treated wonderful." Kind "walked away" from the visit "impressed but also perplexed at the opposition and outright anger directed toward government-run health care." After noting that Kind called veterans health care a "model for the coordinated, integrated care" that "we should be striving for nationwide," the Journal adds, "Government run or not, Kind said support for VA hospitals remains strong." 

 5.      Company Raises Money To Promote EMR Software Invented By VA.   Bloomberg News (9/1, Mullaney) reports, "Startup company Medsphere Systems Corp." has "raised $12 million to help promote electronic medical- records software invented" by the US Department of Veterans Affairs "to private hospitals" Medsphere "has raised $43 million in all, Chief Executive Officer Mike Doyle said in an interview." The company "sells an open-source version of VA’s Vista electronic-records software to more than 200 hospitals and clinics, Doyle said. He said he expects a boost from the $34 billion President Barack Obama added to this year’s stimulus bill to help doctors and hospitals add electronic records."  

6.      Flying Again Is Freedom For A Veteran Helicopter Pilot And Double Amputee.   The Los Angeles Times (9/1, Skiba, 797K) publishes a story that first appeared in the Chicago Tribune (8/30, 498K), under the headline, "Tammy Duckworth: VA Official, War Amputee Is Flying Again." 

7.      Jury Sides With Former Head Of Bay Pines VAMC In Libel Suit.   In continuing coverage, the Tampa Bay Business Journal (9/1) reports, "A jury Friday awarded the former head of the Bay Pines VA Medical Center $10 million as part of a libel suit filed against the St. Petersburg Times, the newspaper said. Dr. Harold L. Kennedy had sued" the paper, "owned by Times Publishing Co., in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court in 2005 claiming three stories written by the newspaper in 2003 and 2004 contained defamatory statements against him. ‘We are very disappointed by the verdict,’ Neil Brown, the executive editor and a vice president of the Times said in a story that appeared in his paper Saturday. ‘We believe our reporting and editing of these stories met the highest journalistic and ethical standards.’" The Journal adds, "The articles claimed the chief of medicine was under Federal investigation on charges of misusing money and sexual harassment, a review of the published articles online shows."  

8.      "Management Shortcomings" Blamed For Failure Of Patient Scheduling Project.   In continuing coverage, Federal Computer Week (9/1, Lipowicz, 90K) reports, "The Veterans Affairs Department’s systemic management shortcomings are to blame for the failure of its Replacement Scheduling Applications development program, according to a new report from the department’s Office of the Inspector General." The VA "started the project" in "2001 but shut it down in March 2009," after "spending more than $120 million without producing deployable scheduling software. The goal had been to develop a new system for patient scheduling." Federal Computer Week adds, "The inspector general recently reported on poor ethics practices and breaches of authority at the VA’s IT office."
      Bob Brewin noted in his "What’s Brewin’" blog for NextGov (8/29) that VA’s "lack of in-house expertise to support, manage and execute complex information technology projects contributed to the near collapse of the department’s efforts to develop a new replacement patient scheduling application at a cost of $167 million over eight years," the agency’s IG said in a recently released report. The "VA IT shop also has a hard time keeping track of its contracts and statements of work, the IG reported." Brewin added, "One does wonder how the VA can even begin to attempt to manage development of complex IT systems if it can’t even find copies of contracts or statements of work," but "Roger Baker, the new VA Chief Information Officer, does have plans to fix the mess in the IT shop." But, "as more than" one "person told me, the VA is like an aircraft carrier and does not turn on a dime."
      InformationWeek (9/1, Hoover) reports, "In an indication of the major challenges" Baker "faces in the first few months of his job, the VA inspector general has found ‘systemic problems’ in IT project management at the agency. Since taking over, Baker has begun to implement major changes to the VA’s
project management regime, including temporary stoppage of 45 projects that were over budget and behind schedule, a new project management methodology that requires projects to meet their milestones and budget, and increased reliance on metrics such as a goal to meet at least 80% of all project milestones." InformationWeek adds, "One of the projects Baker stopped, the Replacement Scheduling Application, sits at the center of the inspector general’s investigation. The VA is looking to potentially overhaul the project."  

9.      O’Malley To Name Two Cabinet Appointments, Including Chow As Maryland VA Secretary.   The Washington Post (9/1, B4, Wagner, 652K) reports, "Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will announce two midterm Cabinet appointments Tuesday, elevating Beverley K. Swaim-Staley to transportation secretary and naming Edward Chow Jr. veterans affairs secretary." Chow, former "president of the Maryland State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America," will be the "first Asian American to serve in O’Malley’s Cabinet." James Adkins, the "outgoing head" of the VA, "will remain in his other Cabinet post, Maryland adjutant general and head of the state’s Military Department." The "Maryland Politics" blogs for the Washington Post (8/31, Wagner, 652K) and the Baltimore Sun (8/31, Smitherman, 234K), and a report aired by WMAR-TV Baltimore, MD (8/31, 6:06 p.m. ET) also note this story. 

10.    VA Doctor Offers New Take On Differences In Sleep Quality.   In its "Mind" column, the New York Times (9/1, D5, Carey, 1.06M) reports, "Scientists aren’t sure why sleep exists at all, which has made it hard to explain the great diversity of sleeping habits and quirks in birds, fish and mammals of all kinds, including humans." The answer, however, "may boil down to time management, according to a new paper in the August issue of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience. In the paper," Dr. Jerome Siegel, chief of neurobiology at the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare, "argues that sleep evolved to optimize animals’ use of time, keeping them safe and hidden when the hunting, fishing or scavenging was scarce and perhaps risky. In that view, differences in sleep quality, up to and including periods of insomnia, need not be seen as problems but as adaptations to the demands of the environment."