Veterans! Here’s your Top 10 News stories of the day compiled from the latest sources

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1.   Patient Safety Tool: 8 Seasonal Flu Buttons and Stickers.  Becker’s ASC Review  The US Department of Veterans Affairs has developed eight free, downloadable button and sticker designs to help your organization raise flu awareness among your clinical staff and patients. Here are links to download …
2.   Rule change helps veterans: More diseases included in coverage.  Pacific Daily News
Today, Williams, now 71, is one of 89000 Vietnam veterans, including many boat operators, who were paid a total of $2.2 billion in compensation since August 2010, when the US Department of Veterans Affairs added Parkinson’s disease and two other
3.   VA gives Navy veteran a break on GI Bill rates.  AirForceTimes.com  The Veterans Affairs Department has changed its mind about whether a Navy veteran enrolled in New York University’s School of Law will be protected from the new reduced Post-9/11 GI Bill rates that took effect Aug. 1. …
4.   Retiree searches for veterans’ graves in Sandusky County.  Fremont News Messenger
The US Department of Veteran Affairs, he said, issues the family of each US war veteran an American flag and a bronze flag holder when the veteran dies. The flag holder has an emblem showing in which war the veteran fought. If the flag holder vanishes, …
5.   More Are Eligible For Traumatic Injury Payments. Army Times  The VA will “soon begin making retroactive payments to troops who suffered severe injuries…between Oct. 7, 2001, and Nov. 30, 2005,” under the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance Traumatic Injury Protection Program (TSGLI). The benefit, “up to $25,000 to $100,000,” is for veterans who retained severe injuries “outside a combat theater,” and includes National Guard and reserve members even if their injuries were unrelated to “military service. ‘Now all our nation’s service members who suffered severe traumatic injuries while serving their country can receive the same traumatic injury benefits,'” said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. The Department is encouraging those who were “previously denied coverage but believe they qualify” to resubmit claims. Qualifying events include “amputation, limb salvage…and other severe wounds.” More eligibility details are available on the TSGLI webpage.
6.   New Veterans’ Hotel Breaks Ground. Palo Alto (CA) Weekly  VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on Friday presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the “Defenders Lodge, a $12.5 million ‘home away from home’ for veterans who must travel to the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System to receive treatment.” Shinseki said having family “near makes all the difference in helping wounded veterans heal.” He said the Defenders Lodge marks a “turning point, where accommodations specifically for veterans will have a lasting impact for decades to come”; and he pointed out that the Palo Alto center has several “specialized programs,” such as the TBI unit and the “Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center.” The Secretary has also approved a “second Fisher House for VA Palo Alto, making it only the second VA campus” with two Fisher Houses. The other one is in Houston.
7.   A Celtic Cure: Soldiers Use Hurling To Heal After War.  NPR  Hurling, a game “created by ancient Celtic warriors,” has found a “niche following” among some veterans in the US. Sgt. 1st Class Roy Lowes, who was “deployed to Afghanistan in 2004 as a combat medic to help train Afghan soldiers,” says he “was jumpy and aggressive for months” but then he “heard about the Barley House Wolves. ‘Some part of me really needed that small team environment,'” he said. The team was founded in “2006 by National Guard soldiers from Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion of the 172nd Mountain Infantry” in New Hampshire, after watching an Irish hurling match “on their way home from a deployment to Iraq.” The Barley House Wolves are now helping female veterans “start a team” to play camogie, the women’s version of hurling.
8.   VA Awards Opportunities Unlimited Contract To Serve Veterans With TBIs. KCAU-TV  “Veterans with traumatic brain injuries now have a new place to go in Sioux City. Opportunities Unlimited has been has been awarded a contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The contract allows Opportunities Unlimited to provide long-term care to veterans who suffered moderate-to-severe brain injuries. The residential services are available to veterans who have served at any time.”
9.   DoD: Walgreens Letters Could Cause Confusion.  Army Times  Letters sent to TRICARE patients who fill prescriptions at Walgreens “are causing confusion among military families and retirees.” Walgreens sent letters earlier this month that give the impression that TRICARE “itself is dropping Walgreens as a provider, says Joyce Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association.” TRICARE Management Agency Rear Adm. Christine Hunter “said TRICARE is not involved in the negotiations.” The letter campaign is “part of Walgreen’s plans to disassociate from Express Scripts, the contractor that manages TRICARE’s pharmacy program, by the end of the year. … ‘There are 56,000 other pharmacies [in our network] where they can obtain prescriptions,'” Hunter noted.
10. Rewards Of Federal Service. Washington Post “Those who make sport out of denigrating the federal workforce should meet the winners of this year’s Samuel Heyman Service to America Medals,” which are “presented by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that focuses on federal employee issues.” The “awards were scheduled to be presented Thursday evening during a black-tie gala that several top Obama administration officials planned to attend.” The winners included Alfonso Batres, who is chief officer of the Veterans Health Administration’s readjustment counseling service, and W. Todd Grams, the executive in charge of Veterans Affairs’ office of management and chief financial officer.

More Veteran News

• Smokers Don’t Make Better Lovers: Study. Reuters A study in the British Journal of Urology International suggests that men who successfully gave up smoking tested at higher levels of sexual health than did men who tried to quit smoking but relapsed. Study author Christopher Harte, who works at the VA Boston Healthcare System, said that while his research is not yet definitive, “just getting the word” to men about what the study found “could influence their decisions to start the quitting process.”

•  Problem Drinking Linked To Brain Damage. HealthDay  “Long-term alcohol abuse can result in significant damage to the brain, a new study shows.” HealthDay adds, “‘We now know that alcohol has wide ranging effects across the entire cortex and in structures of the brain that contribute to a wide range of psychological abilities and intellectual functions,’ study corresponding author Catherine Brawn Fortier, a neuropsychologist and researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School, said in a Harvard news release.” According to HealthDay, the study “will be published in the December print issue of Alcoholism.”

• VA Proves Government Should Be Involved In Helping Vets Find Jobs. Stars And Stripes  “Executives from more than 20 companies traded ideas on hiring more military veterans in this tough economy, and easing their transition into civilian careers, during a special ‘Veterans Employment Summit’…hosted” earlier this week by the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Before a “single idea could be shared, however,” US Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) argued with US Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), the committee’s chairman, about whether the government should have a role in helping to get vets hired. Filner noted that Veterans Affairs “creates thousands of jobs through its various construction projects.” But Miller maintained that he will do everything he “can to keep the foot of the government off the backs of the people that hire individuals.”

• VA Expands Lifetime Electronic Record Pilot. FierceEMR “The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) is expanding its Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) pilot program to share the electronic health records of more veterans, it announced…last Thursday.” In the announcement, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki “said…the expansion would help to ‘improve continuity and timeliness of care, and eliminate gaps in healthcare information.'” FierceEMR adds, “The program shares…veterans’ health information electronically between” VA, the Department of Defense, and “selected private healthcare facilities partnering with the VA to provide treatment to participants.”

• VA: Post-9/11 GI Bill Backlog Eliminated. Houston Chronicle “The Department of Veterans Affairs has eliminated the backlog of claims for the Post-9/11 GI Bill that plagued the program when it launched two years ago, officials said Thursday.” Allison Hickey, VA’s “under secretary for benefits, compared the process of implementing the new GI Bill to flying a plane while building it.” She added, “Now it’s built, and we’re flying it, and it’s flying very well.” The Chronicle also quotes Tom Tarantino, senior legislative associate with the nonprofit group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who “said he’s cautiously optimistic,” adding, “If the VA’s truly gotten rid of their backlog, it’s going to allow veterans to continue their college education unencumbered by administrative problems and stress and that’s exactly what the GI Bill is designed to do.”

• Fashion Campaign Raising Money To Help Female Vets. CBS Early Show “Fashion Week…in New York” recently, six female veterans launched the “Fatigues to Fabulous campaign.” It “raises funds to help female veterans with housing, job training, and counseling when they return from combat.”

• Rate Of Homeless Female Vets Rises Near Fort Bragg. NPR  audio In “Fayetteville, N.C., home to the Army’s Fort Bragg, the number of homeless female veterans is rising rapidly.” Susan Angell, who “heads the Veterans Administration’s homeless” initiative, “says female veterans are not always proactive about signing up for their benefits. But she says two new VA programs and a hotline designed for homeless vets should help women.”

•  Walk To Honor, Bring Attention To Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Windsor (CO) Beacon  “A Soldier’s Silent Cry” is a “petition for the US military to require that troops who have served overseas undergo regular mental-health evaluations. Those with post-traumatic stress disorder would be given an option to seek care from the local US Department of Veterans Affairs branch or the therapist of their choice, at the VA’s expense, or be referred to a nonprofit organization.” Those responsible for the petition “have planned a 5K walk at 10 a.m. Sept. 25, beginning and ending at Veterans Plaza at Spring Canyon Park.” Money raised by the walk will go to the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, which provides assistance to people who have lost loved ones in the military.

• Former Chattanooga Police Officer Awarded $680,000. Chattanooga Times Free Press  Mickel Hoback, a former Chattanooga police officer, “won $680,000 in his lawsuit against the city but not what was most important to him – his job back.” During a four-day trial held this week, “retired Chattanooga Police Chief Freeman Cooper testified that he fired Hoback on July 21, 2009, based on the psychologist’s evaluation that the officer was ‘unfit for duty’ because of self-reported incidents related to his post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis following service in Iraq with the Tennessee Army National Guard in 2004-05.”

• VA Reaches Out To Rural Vets. Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Nearly 40 percent of veterans enrolled in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care programs live in rural areas of our country.” But “VA’s out-patient health care system emphasizes prevention and patient-centered care using the electronic health record and patient aligned care teams.” In addition, the “Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Rural Health was created in March 2007 to provide quality care to veterans in rural and highly rural areas.”

• Hospital In Payson Is Utah’s Lone “Top Performer.” Salt Lake Tribune  “The Joint Commission, which accredits health centers, published its first list of ‘top performers’ in the arena of quality care – most of them small, rural hospitals and Veterans Affairs medical centers.” The “ratings were based on 2010 data and weighed hospitals’ performance on 22 clinical steps shown to yield the best care for each of the following conditions: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care and children’s asthma.” Washington (DC) Examiner  VA has “announced that two Southern California VA medical centers were recognized by The Joint Commission as Top Performers on Key Quality Measures for 2010: VA Loma Linda Health Care System and VA San Diego Health Care System. While all 152 VA medical centers are accredited by The Joint Commission, the list recognizes medical centers that are top performers based on the Joint Commission’s review of evidence-based care processes that are closely linked to positive patient outcomes.” The 20 VA “facilities on the list were identified for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance for the full previous year (2010) and represent approximately 14% of The Joint Commission-accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals that report core measure performance data.”

• AMVETS Commander Praises VA Hospital. Southern Illinoisan  “AMVETS National Commander Gary Fry liked what he saw and was briefed about Thursday during a visit” to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Marion. He was “joined by Marion VA Director Paul Bockelman, Associate Director Frank Kehus and Chief of Voluntary Services Sylvia Jackson. Fry’s visit was part of a statewide tour of veterans’ services throughout the state.”

• VA Holds Off On Closing Mobile Clinic In Maine. Government Health IT “Federal officials have reversed their decision to close a mobile medical clinic for veterans in rural Maine, saying the issue needs further study. The announcement came during a town meeting Monday night in the eastern Maine community of Bingham, at which roughly 120 people had showed up to protects last week’s decision by the US Department of Veterans Affairs to shut down a mobile clinic that serves some 400 veterans from a large part of the state.”

• VA Medical Center Power & Heating Plant Going Green. Battle Creek (MI) Enquirer A “form of cutting-edge electricity- and heat-generating technology appears destined for the Battle Creek Veterans Affairs Medical Center. A biomass gasification system — noted for producing clean, carbon-neutral heat and power — is to be delivered to and installed at the medical center, according to VA officials and a news release issued by Nexterra Systems Corp. of Vancouver, British Columbia.” Nexterra “announced the project Tuesday, saying it had signed a contract to deliver a $6.9 million system to the medical center as part of an overall $18 million project at the VA, in partnership with Detroit-based DeMaria Building Co. and Minneapolis-based HGA Architects.”

•  Community Meeting Focuses On Homelessness Among Veterans. St. Cloud (MN) Times  The “St. Cloud VA Health Care System will host a community meeting from 8-11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Holiday Inn to address homelessness by veterans. The guiding principle of Project CHALENG (Community Homeless Assessment Local Education and Networking Groups) is that no single agency can provide the full spectrum of services required to help homeless veterans.” The “results of the meeting will be forwarded to the Department of Veterans Affairs and assist federal decision-makers in establishing budgets and developing programs.”

• Old VA Building One Of Two Award Finalists. Leavenworth (KS) Times  “The National Housing & Rehabilitation Association announced Eisenhower Ridge Building 19, located in Leavenworth, is a finalist for this year’s J. Timothy Anderson Awards For Excellence In Historic Rehabilitation.” The “Building 19 project rehabilitated a 125-year-old mess hall that historically served Civil War veterans as part of the Western Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Now, the building serves modern veterans as the Department of Veterans Affairs Central Plains Consolidated Patient Accounts Center.”

• Soldier Who Lost Both Legs And Left Arm In Afghanistan Inspires Neighbors To Hold Benefit. New York Daily News  25-year-old Pfc. Bryan Dilberian, who “lost his legs and his left arm fighting in Afghanistan,” is “slowly putting his life back together.” Dilberian has “spent the last few months rehabbing at a veterans hospital in Maryland.” The nonprofit group Graybeards of Columbus has raised $25,000 for Dilberian and hopes to raise more money for at a “golfing fund-raiser for the returning veteran Friday night at Riis Park in Rockaway.

•  County Urged To Accept Grave Sites For Homeless Vets. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

•  Civil War Preservation Group Hosts Celebration. Northwest Indiana Times

•  Ride 2 Recovery Bicyclists Travel From Gettysburg To Bedford. Hagerstown (MD) Herald-Mail