DoD Bidirectional Information Sharing Was Launched, However WASHINGTON—The rollout of VA’s new electronic health record system has been delayed again, this time due to the coronavirus. Just prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, VA had announced it...
Masks, Other Protective Equipment Went Into Federal Stockpile WASHINGTON—While early in the pandemic VA leaders repeatedly said that their facilities had enough personal protective equipment for its staff to weather the crisis, reports began circulating last month of...
WASHINGTON—On March 4, VA announced its first coronavirus patient—a veteran at the Palo Alto VAMC. Seven weeks later, the system had 6,363 reported cases and 400 inpatient deaths nationwide. As of press time in late April, at least 132 VA facilities had treated...
WASHINGTON—The rollout of VA’s new electronic health record system has been delayed to at least July due to a lack of technology infrastructure and issues surrounding employee training. According to legislators, issues with a timely implementation were apparent as...
WASHINGTON—Legislators are referring to it as the “silver tsunami”—the wave of Vietnam-era veterans who are entering their later years and who will increasingly require long-term care from VA over the next decade. Both lawmakers and veterans’ advocates are concerned...
VAMCs Also Called on to Backstop Overwhelmed Civilian Hospitals WASHINGTON—While most of the country was nearing the end of its second full week of lockdown due to COVID-19, VA was in the midst of two massive administrative undertakings. The first was familiar to many...
When President Harry Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act into law in 1948, it was touted as opening full military service and veterans’ benefits to women, but many restrictions remained in place. Women were not allowed to fly aircraft engaged in...
WASHINGTON—Despite significant efforts by DoD and VA to revamp the disability evaluation process, the new system remains “complex and adversarial,” the top Army doctor told a congressional subcommittee. DoD and VA agreed on a new disability and evaluation system to...
WASHINGTON - Since 1982, the VA has had a fourth mission that reaches beyond providing healthcare, benefits, and burial of veterans to providing emergency support to the nation’s healthcare system. That mission has come to the fore with novel coronavirus stressing a...
WASHINGTON - While VAMCs undertook a number of steps to respond to the increase in COVID-19 cases coming through their doors, the VA recognized the need to reach vulnerable and anxious veterans in their communities. To expand outreach to these veterans during the...
WASHINGTON—With an increase in the number of servicemembers coming forward to report their experience with sexual assault during active duty, VA is slowly making progress in implementing best practices for how to evaluate and care for survivors of military sexual...
WASHINGTON—While the VA has declared preventing veteran suicide to be their top priority, veterans continue to attempt or commit suicide at VA healthcare facilities. Recent reports from the VA Inspector General’s Office suggest that the deficiencies that allow these...
FORSAN, TX — By rolling out the Whole Health System, the VA expects to transform care for veterans and could establish the agency as the national leader in a fundamentally different, truly integrated approach to healthcare. The Whole Health program asks alternative...
A Quarter of Recent Veterans Have Faced Food Insecurity WASHINGTON — Tim, a Navy veteran living in Maine, was injured on the job and found himself unable to return to work. With no income, he applied for benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program....
WASHINGTON—The VA will no longer use a star ratings system to compare its 146 VA medical centers. Instead, the VA will make public measures such as wait times, quality of medical care and patient experience ratings available for each facility. According to VA...
WASHINGTON — Veterans seeking care from community providers could face even longer wait times under the MISSION Act than they did before the legislation went into effect, a VA Office of Inspector General report has concluded. In the report released last month,...
Delays in VA Appointments Pose Challenges SAN ANTONIO, TX — A new program at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston aims to give transitioning servicemembers with inflammatory bowel disease the information they need to manage their disease when they leave...
PORTLAND, OR — While the term “palliative care” is usually associated with ameliorating pain and discomfort at the end of life, it appeared to have other benefits for veterans, according to a new study. In this cohort study of 23 ,154 patients with advanced lung...
WASHINGTON — As of the beginning of the year, TRICARE is offering 3D mammograms to screen for breast cancer for eligible patients. Previously, Tricare only covered digital breast tomosynthesis in special case (i.e., after a physician order for at-risk patients or...
PORTLAND, OR — Agent Orange exposure might have had more effect than previously assumed on development of head and neck cancers, according to a recent study. A report in the Oral Oncology journal described how self-reported Agent Orange exposure was linked with...
Most Report Satisfaction with Work Life, Social Well-Being BOSTON — Health issues plague veterans, even when they first leave military service and are viewed as a bigger problem than finding work or establishing civilian social relationships. That’s according to a new...
LONDON, UK – For years, common treatments -- levodopa and dopamine agonists (dopamine replacement therapy [DRT]) – have been implicated in Parkinson's disease psychosis. A report published in Movement Disorder Clinical Practice pointed out that the relationship...
WASHINGTON — Gulf War illness appears to be more complex than previously thought, according to a study using brain imaging of veterans with the condition. The report in Brain Communications discussed how varying abnormalities were detected after moderate exercise that...
MEMPHIS, TN—Because biologic therapies prescribed for inflammatory diseases increase the risk of activation of latent tuberculosis infections, some VAMCs recommend baseline testing of veterans starting these agents and annual testing thereafter. Several recent studies...
Wilkie’s Characterization of ‘Unsubstantiated’ Challenged by VA IG WASHINGTON — Following an investigation by the VA Office of the Inspector General, federal authorities have decided not to file any charges based on a reported assault at the DC VAMC this past fall. A...
WASHINGTON — When Project BioShield was first signed into law 15 years ago, the nation had few medical countermeasures to respond to bioterrorism. Since then, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency has supported 27 projects using Project BioShield...
CLEVELAND — Aasef Shaikh, MD, PhD, grew up in India as the son of two ENT surgeons, which he credits for his early interest in understanding the system that helps humans keep their balance.
WASHINGTON—The fight to push forward legislation that would create a three-year pilot programming allowing VA to provide grants to community groups targeting veteran suicide has caused rare, public friction among the usually bipartisan House VA Committee and between...
WASHINGTON—Though it might be lost among VA’s larger, higher-profile IT projects, the department is moving forward with its latest attempt to replace its financial management system—something it has tried and failed to do twice in the past. The Financial Management...
As Many as 90,000 Veterans Could Become Eligible WASHINGTON—With as many as 90,000 veterans waiting in the wings to apply for benefits, the VA said it will be ready to handle the influx of new claims when the provisions of the Blue Water Navy Act go into effect on...
