VA HQ Veterans News for Wednesday, August 24, 2011. Thanks to Kevin Secor at VA HQ!

 

1.     White supremacist pleads guilty in VA pension case.  BlueRidgeNow.com  The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Dean A. Eichelberger is handling ...

 

2.     Google-Like Word Searches of Medical Records May Boost Patient Safety.  Bloomberg
Researchers from the US Department of Veterans Affairs reviewing patient records at six VA medical centers turned up 12 times as many cases of pneumonia and twice as many incidents of kidney failure and sepsis, a blood infection, when they used text ...

 

3.     ASU adds Veteran Affairs to health care consortium.  Bizjournals.com  The WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University has added the US Department of Veteran Affairs to its Health Sector Supply Chain Research Consortium. The consortium, a group of health companies and academic researchers focused on better ...

 

4.     Veteran education plan changes taking effect.  Clarksville Leaf Chronicle  The Yellow Ribbon Program still exists for out-of-state fees and costs above the cap. Break or interval pay is no longer payable under any VA education benefit program. This means that when the semester ends on Dec. 15, housing allowance is paid for ...

 

5.     Judge Wants Attorneys to Settle Cemetery Prayer Dispute.  WTAW   A federal judge is asking attorneys for veterans groups and the US Department of Veterans Affairs to settle a lawsuit accusing Houston VA officials of religious discrimination. Three veterans groups accuse VA officials at Houston ...

 

6.     Huntsville veteran urging friends to attend Saturday's Walk to Defeat ALS.  al.com (blog)  From 2003-07, the US Department of Veterans Affairs identified more than 2100 veterans with Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS was designated a service-connected disease in 2008. Congress appropriated $8 million to the Department of Defense last year for ALS ...

 

7.     Senior news in brief.  The Mercury  The presentation is geared toward men and women who are at least 70 years old or who are disabled and who may be eligible for a monthly tax-free benefit through the US Department of Veterans Affairs. To qualify, a veteran or spouse must have served at ...

 

8.     Governor Brown Creates California Interagency Council on Veterans.  Imperial Valley News  IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs invite federal agencies such as the US Department of Veterans Affairs, US Department of Labor, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the military services, ...

 

9.     Governor Replaces Kansas Vet Agency Director.  Topeka Capital-Journal  "Gov. Sam Brownback completed the replacement Monday of the top administrative official at the Kansas Commission on Veterans' Affairs. Retired Col. Gregg Burden, a supervisory program specialist with the Veterans Administration in Topeka, was nominated by the governor to be executive director of the state agency designed to work as advocate for veterans in Kansas." The board for the aforementioned commission "unanimously affirmed the hiring."

 

10.                        Raiders Spread Goodwill For Veterans. Napa Valley (CA) Register 12 members of the Oakland Raiders National Football league franchise, "visited with residents of the Veterans Home of California in Yountville during the dinner hour in the main dining room." The "players filled the hour by signing autographs, having their photos taken and getting to know some of the Home residents on a more personal level. Founded in 1884, the Veterans Home of California in Yountville is the largest veterans' home in the United States, offering residential accommodations with a wealth of recreational, social, and therapeutic activities for independent living."

 

11.                        VA Will Test Cloud-Based Collaboration Tools For Physicians.  Government Health IT  The US Department of Veterans Affairs "intends to make commercial cloud-based software-as-a-service collaborative tools available for its physicians, seeking to improve communications while also reducing data breaches." Federal "agencies are increasingly considering a cloud-based environment to consolidate systems, reduce costs and strengthen information security – per an Office of Management and Budget 'Cloud First' policy for new projects – and health-related agencies are moving in that direction."  FierceHealthIT "Privacy and communications issues surround planned pilot testing of cloud-based tools by the Department of Veterans Affairs that could impact as many as 134,000 VA medical workers. Specifically, the VA wants to move its Microsoft Exchange-based collaboration system to a cloud-based system, according to InformationWeek." FierceHealthIT adds, "Currently, the VA is in search of an established cloud-based vendor, according to a Federal Business Opportunities notice posted Aug. 11."

 

12.                        Chilling Out With EmWave2. Louisville Courier-Journal "The HeartMath company says the technology behind the emWave2 stress management system is being used by thousands of health professionals, including Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics that treat post-traumatic stress disorder." The "portable stress reliever with software costs $229 at heartmathstore.com." It is designed to track heart rates so that those using the device can adjust their "breathing...and move into a more relaxed state of mind."

 

13.                        Help For Homeless, At-Risk Families. Providence (RI) Journal   "Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki has announced nearly $60 million in homeless prevention grants to serve about 22,000 homeless and at-risk families as part of the new Supportive Services for Veteran Families program." Shinseki "explained that the program expands VA's capacity to act before a veteran becomes homeless and to target the problem of family homelessness. Under the supportive services program, VA awards grants to provide a range of services to very low-income veterans' families," including "outreach, case management, assistance in obtaining VA benefits, and assistance in obtaining and coordinating other public benefits."

 

14.                        New Tool A More Accurate Predictor Of PTSD.  Medscape "A new test that screens for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) takes about 5 minutes to administer, appears to outperform other screening methods, and can be easily incorporated into clinical practice, according to new research published online July 20 in General Hospital Psychiatry. The New York PTSD Risk Score was developed by Joseph Boscarino, PhD, MPH, of the Center for Health Research, Geisinger Clinic, Danville, Pennsylvania, and colleagues." Medscape adds, "A number of screens are available, including the Primary Care PTSD Screen, which is used among Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs personnel and also in civilians."

 

15.                        Healthcare Communication, Telemedicine Empowers Patients.  Orlando Sentinel"Although the technology has been around for decades, only within the past few years has it been available to patients" at Veterans Affairs care facilities in Florida. The agency "plans to expand those telemedicine services during the next year. 'The advantage of telemedicine is that it allows the veteran, or civilian for that matter, to access care in their location,' said Nick Ross, assistant director of outpatient clinics and planning at the VA of North Florida and South Georgia."

 

16.                        Healthcare Key Is Access Not Cost.  MedPage Today  "While financial hardship can serve as an obstacle to medical care, long wait-times for appointments and inability to take time off work are more common barriers to healthcare access, a new study found. While nearly 19% of Americans reported costs as a factor in preventing them from seeking necessary healthcare, 21% of US adults surveyed said they have delayed care for non-financial reasons, according to a study published online in the journal Health Services Research." Dr. Jeffrey Kullgren of the Veterans Affairs hospital in Philadelphia was lead author of the study.

 

17.                        Houston VA Accused Of Religious Discrimination.  AP   "A federal judge on Monday asked attorneys for several veterans groups and the US Department of Veterans Affairs to work toward settling a lawsuit accusing Houston VA officials of religious discrimination. Three local veterans groups have accused VA officials at the Houston National Cemetery of banning such religious words as 'God' and censoring their prayers at soldiers' funerals." An attorney for VA denied those allegations on Monday, but US District Judge Lynn Hughes "seemed sympathetic to the veterans groups during the half-hour hearing packed by veterans, both seated and standing."

 

18.                        Lancaster County Getting A Court For Those Who Have Served.  WHP-TV  Any veteran "who is entering the court system" in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, "will soon be able to apply to participate in Veteran's Court, a program that intercepts men and women who serve our country and processes them with the help of veteran judges and other veteran personnel who understand what these men and women have gone through," such as post-traumatic stress disorder. It is "believed the court could be in place by next year."

 

19.                        Dogs Assist Veterans With Post Traumatic Stress. KSAZ-TV  A program called Soldier's Best Friend pairs shelter dogs with veterans who have post-traumatic stress-disorder. The animals are trained to be service dogs for such vets.

 

20.                        Readjustment.  Boston Globe  Jacqueline Rosario, a US Army veteran of the Afghan war, is a "recovering opiate addict whose life disintegrated into a dependence on medication she originally took for a back injury suffered during a 12-year military career." But now, she is ensconced in a "new, two-bedroom duplex with toys on the floor and inspirational sayings on the walls, Rosario is turning the corner through a program that provides disabled Iraq and Afghan veterans low-cost housing, free education at Mount Wachusett, and therapy tailored to their physical, occupational, and emotional needs. The private, nonprofit program, called the Northeast Veteran Training and Rehabilitation Center, is based on this simple premise: to give struggling young veterans and their families the tools they need for a life after war."

 

21.                        Tuition Assistance, Benefits Changes Take Effect.  Providence (RI) Journal   "The Department of Veterans Affairs wants veterans to know about recent changes made by Congress to the Post-9/11 GI Bill that will take effect this year." Gen. Allison Hickey, VA's undersecretary for benefits, "said that with the help of the bill more than 537,000 soldier-students received more than $11.5 billion in the last two years." The Journal added, "For ongoing benefit information, veterans and service members can log on to the VA eBenefits website at www.eBenefits.va.gov."

 

22.                        VA Spent $717 Million On Drug Deemed As Effective As A Placebo.  NextGov "Over the past decade, the Veterans Affairs Department spent $717 million for an anti-psychotic drug to treat post-traumatic stress disorder that a recent study shows is no more effective than a placebo. Data provided by the department in response" to a NextGov "query showed that VA doctors wrote more than 5 million prescriptions for risperidone from October 2000, the beginning of fiscal 2001, through June 2010." The aforementioned study "also questioned the effectiveness of other second-generation anti-psychotic drugs, including Seroquel," which VA has spent $846 million on "over the past decade for more than 6.6 million prescriptions."

 

23.                        Warrior Summit At Soldier Field. WLS-TV  A "unique concert, benefit and resource fair" was held on "Tuesday at Soldier Field." The event provided "benefits, education, employment, housing and legal services for our country's service men and women, veterans and their family. The Warrior Summit ( www.illinoiswarriorsummit.com) was founded" by Iraq veteran Rob Malnik.

 

24.                        Walter Reed Army Medical Center Readies For Move Into History.  Time This past weekend, approximately "200 wounded military personnel traveled five miles from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. That's because, on September 15, after 102 years in operation, historic Walter Reed Army hospital" will close. This Sunday, the "final 100 Walter Reed patients will be loaded into ambulances and transferred to Bethesda."

 

25.                        Aubrey Stewart Project Makes Stop At VA Hospital.  WBOY-TV  "Aubrey Stewart Project is making its way across the state and made a special trip" to a Veterans Affairs hospital.. The website, which did not say where the hospital is located, reported that the project "tells the story of a Black World War II soldier who was tortured and killed by the Germans after the Battle of the Bulge." The project "has made stops in Marion County sharing Stewart's story and working to end racism and prejudice."

 

26.                        Service To Honor 58 Veterans.  Southtown Star  "A military honors ceremony for 58 veterans is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 9 at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery." The "public is invited to the services, which are for veterans who are homeless, have no known next of kin, have family who is unable to attend, or for various reasons, no one requested military honors. The ceremonies are held quarterly for veterans who were buried directly without honors, said Jack Picciolo, of Lockport VFW Post 5788."

 

27.                        First Woman To Lead Disabled Vets Group In Its 86-Year History. Billings (MT) Gazette

 

28.                        UNC Makes Services Available To Student Veterans. Denver Post