Top 10 Veterans News from Around the Country 1-11-10

What’s Inside Today’s Local News for Veterans

1. Broadway, TV Actors Join Combat Vets Assistance Project.
2. Tomah VAMC Receives Grant To Help Patients With Chronic Illness.
3. Small Businesses Turning To Government For Shelter From Lingering Economic Downturn.
4. City Council To Discuss Plan To Acquire VA-Owned Homes.
5. Building Donated To Nonprofit Veterans Assistance Organization.
6. Donations Sought For Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic.
7. Landowners Hoping To Provide Site For New VA Clinic.
8. VA Hospital’s Employee Volunteer Group Honored.
9. College Students Visit VA Clinic.
10.  Blankets Given To Formerly Homeless Vets.

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HAVE YOU HEARD?

More than 400 veterans in Southern California have agreed to participate in a project to test how VA can improve patient care by sharing electronic health records with a private health provider, a fundamental goal behind the development of a national network the Obama administration is pursuing. VA and Kaiser Permanente recently launched a pilot medical data exchange program in San Diego using the Nationwide Health Information Network. The pilot program connects VA’s VistA (Veterans Affairs Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) and Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect®. VA beneficiaries and Kaiser Permanente members in the San Diego area were the first to be offered the opportunity to sign up for the pilot, with the understanding that their information would not be shared without their consent. The program’s next phase will add authorized data from the U.S. Department of Defense’s health care system to this exchange in early 2010. Ultimately, this program is planned to be made available to all Veterans and Service Members. Led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the NHIN provides a technology “gateway” to support interoperability standards and a legal framework for the secure exchange of health information between treating physicians, when authorized by a patient. Clinicians from the participating organizations can electronically, securely, and privately share authorized patient data, ensuring around-the-clock access to critical health information. 

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1.      Broadway, TV Actors Join Combat Vets Assistance Project. The AP (1/11) reports, "Actors from Broadway and television are performing in Washington as part of a theater project to help returning soldiers discuss the psychological effects of war and combat." On Monday and Tuesday, "Isiah Whitlock from ‘The Wire,’ Tamara Tunie of ‘Law and Order: SVU’ and Broadway performers Francoise Battiste and Bill Camp are joining the ‘Theater of War’ project," a "program from the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs" that "presents readings of ancient Greek plays to help spur discussions on the challenges faced by combat veterans." The AP notes that on Monday, the "group performs…at an Arlington, Va., Marine Corps facility," while on Tuesday, "they will perform at a veterans suicide prevention conference and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center."  

2.      Tomah VAMC Receives Grant To Help Patients With Chronic Illness. In continuing coverage, the Tomah (WI) Journal (1/10, 4K) said the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center "was recently selected as one of 20 sites within the Veterans Health Administration to receive a grant for systems redesign and improvement. The $1.3 million grant was awarded to the Intensive Clinical Care Management (ICCM) team," which runs "program designed for individuals who are unable to achieve or maintain safe levels of control of their chronic disease(s) and as a result are at greater risk of complications." 

3.      Small Businesses Turning To Government For Shelter From Lingering Economic Downturn. In a story noting how the "lingering downturn" in the US economy "has more small businesses" attempting to land government contracts, the Fort Meyers (FL) News-Press (1/11, Ruane) reports, "Toby Vetrano of Cape Coral-based Rockland Laundry Supply has a steady clientele that’s predominantly from the government," including "Veterans Administration hospitals…and state-owned veterans’ nursing homes. Vetrano said his business is ‘definitely more sheltered from the recession than businesses that aren’t selling to the federal government.’" 

4.      City Council To Discuss Plan To Acquire VA-Owned Homes. The Cincinnati Enquirer (1/11, Wartman, 189K) reports, "The fate of the 19th century former military officers’ homes in the back of Tower Park might soon become clear" because on Monday, the city council for Fort Thomas, Kentucky, "will discuss a business plan on acquiring the homes and could decide whether it wants to purchase" them or not. The homes "have sat vacant for six years as the city and the homes’ owner," the US Department of Veterans Affairs, "clear legal hurdles in purchasing the properties." 

5.      Building Donated To Nonprofit Veterans Assistance Organization. The Daily Inter Lake (1/10, Chase), a newspaper in Kalispell , Montana, reported, "Allen Erickson, founder" of the nonprofit "Northwest Montana Veterans Stand Down and Food Pantry, received an anonymous Christmas present he’ll never forget – an 11,098-square-foot building" in Evergreen. The "new location more than quadruples Erickson’s current 2,400 square feet spread across three buildings on Montana 35." Erickson "expects to move the operation in late spring."
 

6.      Donations Sought For Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic. The first item in the "Helping Works" blog for the Boise-based Idaho Statesman (1/9, 61K) said the Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, which is "held each year" in Colorado, "helps veterans with spinal cord injuries, amputations, neurological disorders and visual impairments to improve their physical well-being and mental health. Last year, five veterans from the Treasure Valley were able to attend the clinic, largely because of public donations." If readers can help this year, they should send their donations to the Boise Veterans Affairs Medical Center, "Attn: Voluntary Services."

 7.      Landowners Hoping To Provide Site For New VA Clinic. The Eugene (OR) Register-Guard (1/10, Dietz, 66K) reported, "Landowners in Eugene and Springfield are vying to provide the site of a major new regional Veterans Affairs medical clinic — worth as much as $40 million — for the Eugene-Springfield area." In Eugene, PeaceHealth, a "nonprofit hospital system," is "hoping to land the project," but "canny Springfield-based developer Steven Yett also has crafted a couple of proposals for two separate parcels he controls in Springfield." Other "proposals also are likely to emerge before the Jan. 22 deadline." 

8.      VA Hospital’s Employee Volunteer Group Honored. The Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader (1/11) reports employees at the Veterans Affairs hospital "in Plains Township volunteer at the medical center and Community Living Center during their off-duty hours to show their appreciation to the patients and residents." The hospital’s "Employee Volunteer Group serves a holiday dinner and distributes gifts" on Christmas Day, and "escorts patients to special activities and celebrations. Members of the volunteer group were recently presented pins for ‘Making a Difference.’"
     Holiday Gifts Donated To Veterans. In a separate story, the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Times-Leader (1/11) notes that the "Plains Township Neighborhood Crime Watch donated holiday gifts for patients and residents of the Community Living Center" at the VA hospital in Plains Township. The Times-Leader adds, "Members of Plains Manor helped the township’s crime watch group collect comfort items for the veterans." 

9.      College Students Visit VA Clinic. At the end of the "In Education" section of its "Community Milestones" column, the Winston-Salem (MA) Journal (1/11) reports, "A group of students from Winston-Salem State University’s observed Veterans’ Day early by showing their appreciation on Nov. 10, 2009. Students representing the graduate Rehabilitation Counseling and undergraduate Rehabilitation Studies programs visited the Veterans’
 Administration Outpatient Clinic in Winston-Salem for a morning of doughnuts, coffee and conversation." This "was the third year in a row in which students from Winston-Salem State University have visited the veterans at the outpatient clinic, and both programs intend to maintain the project for years to come." 

10.    Blankets Given To Formerly Homeless Vets. The fourth item in the "Word on the Street" column for the MetroWest Daily News (1/11, Banks), a paper in Framingham, Massachusetts, says that when Natick interim Veterans Agent Walter Rice recently found 16 "crocheted, lap-size blankets/afghans" that had been left in his office, with a note instructing that they were "a little something for the veterans," he "took the blankets to the Bedford Veterans Quarters, an independent living facility for formerly homeless vets located" at the Bedford Veterans Affairs Medical Center.