Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 4-21-09

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Disabled Vet Participates In First Winters Sports Clinic. 
2. IG Said To Have Finished Report On SPAWAR Contracts.  
3. VA Launches New Website For Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.  
4. With Burr Now On Board, Duckworth’s VA Confirmation Appears "Imminent."  
5. Private Facility Offering Free Chiropractic Care To Returning Vets.  
6. Meeting In Florida Will Discuss Planned VA Hospital. 
7. Work Continues On Wade Park VA Building Project.  
8. Gates, Obama Urged To Eliminate The Air Force.  
9. VA Hospital Patients Suffering From Norovirus.  
10. Spokesman Says Pentagon Will End Lockheed Contract For Veterans Benefits.

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VA LAB PROFESSIONALS AND IT PARTNERS IMPROVE SERVICE
In recognition of National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, April 19-25, the Pathology & laboratory Medicine Service Program Office recognizes former laboratory professionals working diligently to provide information technology solutions for improving the quality of laboratory services provided to our veterans and clinicians. Two efforts of particular note are the VistA Blood Establishment Computer Software (VBECS) and the Laboratory Software Re-engineering Initiative (LSRI). To date, VBECS has received FDA 510(k) clearance and is in production at five facilities (one of which is multidivisional) and in test at five others. National release is imminent. VBECS provides improved patient safety checks at various stages of pre-transfusion compatibility preparation, system validation of data entry, improved national standardization of data preparing for future changes to VistA structure and increased use of barcode scanning technology to reduce clerical errors. The LSRI, the replacement for the current VistA Laboratory Information System, is in the prototype development phase with ongoing user testing. Files have been built, tables constructed, reports designed and plans for system integration are under development. Initial test results have met required functionality and business operational needs. Full prototype testing is expected to be completed by the end of 2009 and, if successful, deployment should begin in 2010/11. During National Laboratory Week, it is most appropriate that we salute these IT partners working on behalf of VA’s laboratory community.

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1.      Disabled Vet Participates In First Winters Sports Clinic.   In continuing coverage, the Chillicothe (OH) Gazette (4/21, Ison) profiles 35-year-old veteran Shawn Ritchhart, who was paralyzed in 2004. Initially, Ritchhart "was like many people with a C-4 spinal cord injury and could move only his head and neck, relegating him to a motorized chair he controlled with his chin." Today, however, "he uses a motorized chair he operates with his hand, even with weakened wrist and fingers, and does strength training" at a Veterans Affairs facility in Chillicothe "with a manual chair." And, just recently, Ritchhart "went to his first National Disabled Veterans Winters Sports Clinic in Snowmass Village, Col. ‘You get to do stuff again. You’re not just sitting around,’ he said of participating" in the event "co-sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs."

2.      IG Said To Have Finished Report On SPAWAR Contracts.   In his "What’s Brewin’" blog for NextGov (4/20), Bob Brewin wrote, "I have picked up some pretty good intelligence" that the inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs "has just finished a report detailing mismanagement of contracts that the department’s IT shop farmed out" to the Space and Naval Systems Center (SPAWAR). That "report, I’m told, was sent to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki late last week and, I hope, will be publicly released real soon. I’m" also "told that SPAWAR has 44 contracts with the IT shop, including a project to build a system to handle claims under the new GBI bill." Brewin added, "I have learned that one of those contracts includes a loopy project for SPAWAR to mentor VA IT folks who hold a Senior Executive Service rank."

3.      VA Launches New Website For Iraq, Afghanistan Vets.   In his "Federal Eye" blog for the Washington Post (4/20), Ed O’Keefe said the "Department of Veterans Affairs launched a new" website Monday "aimed at informing recent veterans of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq about the benefits available to them upon their return." The site, which can be found "at http://www.oefoif.va.gov/ (acronyms for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom)," builds on the VA’s "presence on Facebook, YouTube and Second Life." Perhaps "most critically, the site welcomes veteran feedback and will eventually link to veterans’ personal blogs. ‘We are their VA, so we are eager to provide a forum for Veterans to discuss their lives,’ said Dr. Gerald M. Cross," the VA’s principal deputy undersecretary for health.

4.      With Burr Now On Board, Duckworth’s VA Confirmation Appears "Imminent."   In continuing coverage, the Honolulu Advertiser (4/21, Yaukey) reports, "The stalled nomination of wounded Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth for a top post in the Department of Veterans Affairs appears poised for imminent confirmation." North Carolina’s Sen. Richard Burr, "senior Republican on the committee that must approve Duckworth’s nomination before the full" US Senate "votes on it, had asked that she clarify financial information provided on questionnaires. Duckworth has done that," Samantha Smith, Burr’s press secretary, said Monday, adding that Burr "supports her nomination."

5.      Private Facility Offering Free Chiropractic Care To Returning Vets.   WLUC-TV Marquette, MI (4/20, 6:06 p.m. ET) broadcast, "McLean Family Chiropractic & Wellness in Marquette is offering free care to any veteran returning from deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq." Dr. John McLean "is part of a nationwide initiative to provide access to chiropractic services, free of charge. Although area veterans may receive chiropractic treatment" at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Iron Mountain, McLean "hopes by having another facility to turn to, veterans will have an easier time getting the care they need."

6.      Meeting In Florida Will Discuss Planned VA Hospital.   WRDQ-TV Orlando, FL (4/20, 10:27 p.m. ET) broadcast, "In Orange County" on Tuesday, the "House Veterans Affairs Committee will hold its first field hearing on the new VA hospital being built near Lake Nona. The hearing will focus on the status" of the facility, "as well as concerns from local veteran’s service organizations." WFTV-TV Orlando, FL (4/20, 11:32 p.m. ET) broadcast a similar story.

7.      Work Continues On Wade Park VA Building Project.   The Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer (4/21, Albrecht) reports, "Work on a $500 million project that could bring 250 new medical jobs here is quietly chugging into the home stretch at the Wade Park Division of the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center on East Boulevard. Restoration and expansion of the 45-year-old facility" began "in 1999 and is planned to be completed in 2014, replacing the VA’s 48-year-old, 100-acre Brecksville campus" The "effort represents the largest such VA project currently under way in the nation, according to William Montague, medical center director. And it’s sorely needed, according to Montague," who "recalled that when he came here in 1997," it "was painfully obvious that every square foot of the hospital had to be rebuilt and updated."

8.      Gates, Obama Urged To Eliminate The Air Force.   Paul Kane, identified as "a Marine veteran of Iraq and a former fellow with the International Security Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government," writes in an op-ed for the New York Times (4/21, A25, 1.12M) that Defense Secretary Gates "has proposed a budget overhaul that will go a long way toward improving our national security, but more can be done to meet his long-term goal: creating the right military for the 21st century. … Yet there are three major changes Mr. Gates should add to his agenda, and they deserve President Obama’s support." Kane continues, "First, the Air Force should be eliminated, and its personnel and equipment integrated into the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Second, the archaic ‘up or out’ military promotion system should be scrapped in favor of a plan that treats service members as real assets. Third, the United States needs a national service program for all young men and women, without any deferments, to increase the quality and size of the pool from which troops are drawn."

9.      VA Hospital Patients Suffering From Norovirus.   On its website, WISN-TV Milwaukee, WI (4/20) reported, "Several patients at Milwaukee’s" Veterans Affairs hospital "are suffering from the norovirus. A spokesperson for the hospital said the virus is contained to patients on the ninth floor. To keep it from spreading, those patients are not allowed in public areas," such as the cafeteria. WISN added, "Symptoms of the norovirus include vomiting and diarrhea. They usually last a day or two."

10.    Spokesman Says Pentagon Will End Lockheed Contract For Veterans Benefits.   Bloomberg News (4/21, Capaccio) reports, "The Pentagon won’t renew its contract with No. 1 defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. to process retirement benefits and annuity payments" for US "military veterans, according to the agency that oversees the program. The current contract expires early next year and the Pentagon won’t exercise its option for another year, which is worth as much as $28 million to Lockheed, Thomas LaRock, spokesman for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, said. Instead, as many as 600 Pentagon civilians will process the claims at the agency’s facility in Cleveland, LaRock said" in telephone interview.