FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Times Union,Aug20,1999
Friday , THREE STAR EDITION
Headline: Will Government Care Continue for Veterans
Body: We have recently experianced two inspiring periods of remeberance
, namely , Memorial Day and the Fourth of July .. These holidays, plus
Veterans Day , are dedicated to the men and women of this country who
fought and died during the Revolution , a CivilWar, Two World Wars ,
Korea, Viet Nam , and several other major conflicts. ( Every conflict
wich puts members of our armed forces in peril is major in my book,
whether it is Grenada , the Gulf War, Or Kosovo.) I can remember the
groundswell of support we veterans recieved after we returned home .
Politicians ran for office with promises to provide veterans with
medical care and compensation for wounds and illnesses incurred while
in the service . Pictures of headstones neatly lined up at national
cemeteries and in Normandy provide visual reminders of those who died .
Other veterans in other cemeteries have their graves marked by small
flags placed by service organizations to single them out among the
other dead . All this is appropriate and well-deserved . But what about
the living? Instead of living up to the promises of Truman and
Eisenhower, our government is cutting back on the resourses allocated
to the care and treatment of our veterans. The per-capita cost of
taking care of a patient in a VA hospital is about $2600.00 . The per
capita cost of Medicare-reimbursed care in an HMO runs between $5000
and $5,500 . And the VA care is delivered without any sacrafice of
quality . The danger now is the President and Congress are seriously
over funding the VA hospitals and the veterans they are trying to serve
. Congress needs to know that constitutes a blatant rejection of the
promises made . The Stratton Veterans Affairs Medical Center Hospital
in Albany is ready and willing and capable to help me and other
veterans to continue to enjoy our families and our lives, the question
is will they be able ?
byline : Joseph M. Hennessy Delmar

August 31, 1999, Tuesday, BC cycle

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 93 words

HEADLINE: VA reviews North Platte clinic, decides to retain it

DATELINE: NORTH PLATTE, Neb.

BODY:
The Veterans Administration will retain its clinic in North
Platte.

Concerned about recruitment difficulties and cost efficiency, a team
from
the
Veterans Administration's Central Plains Health Network recently
reviewed the

North Platte program.

Late last week, the recommendation was made to the network director
to
maintain a VA staffed clinic.

VA officials said they were committed to keeping the clinic open, but
it was

a matter of whether the services would be contracted within the
community or
The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 31, 1999

August 31, 1999, Tuesday, BC cycle

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 468 words

HEADLINE: Veterans, VA workers awaiting signal for future of VA system

BYLINE: By The Associated Press

BODY:
A meeting is scheduled in Colorado on Thursday on the future of the
Veterans Affairs hospital at Fort Lyon, and veterans and their
advocates
say
they will be watching for a signal of what the Clinton administration
wants to
do not with just the Fort Lyon facility, but the rest of entire VA
hospital
system.

Politicians have indicated the federal government's largest hospital
chain
faces a crossroads.

As many as 13,000 VA health-care workers could lose their jobs next
year
unless Congress provides substantially more money than the
administration has
The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 31, 1999



proposed spending, lawmakers have charged. Separately, the General
Accounting
Office has said some of the 171 hospitals are so archaic and overbuilt
that
taxpayers are having to pay $ 1 million a day to maintain unneeded
facilities.

The logical solution, said former VA secretary Edward J. Derwinski,
would be

to close some of the hospitals, especially the poorly used ones with
aging
buildings.

"God knows there are enough facilities," said Derwinski, who ran the
VA for
the Bush administration.

Few of the VA hospitals illustrate the department's fiscal dilemma
more
dramatically than Fort Lyon, a 77-year-old hospital with more than 50
buildings

spread over 500 acres on an old Army base east of Las Animas. It is,
said
Derwinski, "in the middle of no place" and lacking a large veterans
population.

Today the installation has been downgraded by the VA to little more
than a
216-bed nursing home and an outpatient clinic. It still carries the
title of a
"medical center" and takes 350 federal employees to maintain. Its $ 33
million
budget includes larger outpatient clinics in Pueblo and Colorado
Springs, but
the price tag may be higher than VA officials are willing to spend on a
The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 31, 1999



facility that is distant from most Colorado veterans.

"Do we want it closed? Heck no," said Tim Jones, a national field
representative for the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans
organization. "But if you don't have enough money, what are you going to
do?
You
can't close Denver."

That is a reference to the big VA hospital in Denver, 3 hours
northwest of
Fort Lyon. It serves about 321,241 veterans and is one of the big
urban
hospitals that Derwinski began arguing a decade ago are the future of
the VA.

Veterans in rural areas may not want to travel to urban hospitals,
but
Derwinski said that "in the long run they'll get better care there."
Surgeons
at
rural hospitals who operate infrequently are therefore more likely to
make
mistakes, he said.

Spokesmen for both U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer, a Republican who
represents the
Fort Lyon area, and Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., said neither
man is
opposed to closing Fort Lyon, provided the VA can offer some assurance
of
continued health care for veterans in southeastern Colorado.


The Associated Press State & Local Wire, August 31, 1999

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER August 31, 1999, Tuesday



The team of six people from the Veterans Health Administration will
focus
on whether research at the two hospitals followed federal guidelines on
informed
consent, Tranter said. Those guidelines set out what researchers must
tell
patients before they can become research subjects. Tranter said her
department
has no evidence of wrongdoing. And a spokeswoman for Murray said the
veterans

who talked with the senator were worried about medical research at the
hospitals
but expressed only general concerns.

"From my perspective, I think it's going well," said Charles Keelin,
administrative officer for research at the two local hospitals. He
emphasized
that the hospitals closely follow federal regulations on informed
consent.

Murray wrote West in May on behalf of African American veterans who
have
been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"The veterans want your assurance that the regulations governing
the use
of
veterans as medical test subjects are strictly adhered to by
researchers . .
.," Murray wrote.

She asked that West order an audit of the local hospitals and
determine how
many studies were done, whether patients gave informed consent and
whether any
veterans were harmed as a result of the studies.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER August 31, 1999, Tuesday



Experimentation at the nation's veterans hospitals has become a
pressing
concern this year. In March, the government suspended human and animal
research

at the veterans hospital in West Los Angeles. Concerns at the
hospital, the
nation's largest veterans health care facility, focused on informed
consent
and rules intended to protect patients in research.

Congressional testimony shows that problems at the West Los Angeles
hospital

dated to 1993, when patients involved in schizophrenia research may not
have
been fully informed about the research.

The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this year that a researcher
kept a
patient on an operating table for 45 minutes to collect data from a
probe in
his
heart. The patient had twice said he didn't want to be part of the
experiment.
Another patient underwent the same procedure even though he was mentally
ill
and
didn't give his permission, the Times reported.

In response, the VA has established an office of research compliance
and
plans to hire a contractor to certify that people and animals involved
in
research are protected.

Informed consent must be written and given voluntarily. Patients who
will
participate in research need to get a clear description of risks and
benefits.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER August 31, 1999, Tuesday



They must also learn about alternative procedures that could work as
well as
experimental procedures.

Keelin said local veterans hospitals follow those guides. Patients
unhappy

with the research, he said, can withdraw at any time. A special review
board,
also used by the University of Washington, must approve all research,
including

consent forms.

The veterans hospitals, which have a total of 572 beds, are closely

associated with the UW. Most physicians at the hospital are UW faculty
members.


Keelin said the local veterans hospitals are involved in research
funded
at
$20 million annually. That includes $10 million from the Department of
Veterans Affairs and $8 million from the National Institutes of Health

administered through the UW.

P-I reporter Scott Sunde can be reached at 206-448-8331 or
scottsunde@seattle-pi.com