Va Hospitals

Daniel Greenberg's diatribe on his desire to abolish Veterans Administration hospitals (Op-Ed Page, Nov. 20) strikes me as classic irresponsible journalism. Such naive, misguided, and unresearched information does a disservice to nearly a million veterans, because it could influence the already limited budget of the VA. I have been treated for wounds since World War II, and I will confidently put my intimate observations of VA hospitals up against Greenberg's questionable evidence of what he calls "the country's . . . worst hospital chain."

The hospital was built in the years after World War II. Its ceilings are low, corridors long and corners sharp — all possible stress triggers for those who have been in combat. Not to mention that a hospital waiting room can make anyone edgy. But the Veterans Affairs hospital in Fresno has found a way to make the experience easier: live music. A musician playing amid the hustle and bustle is familiar to anyone who has ever sat at a cafe with entertainment or taken the subway.

Re "In praise of VA hospitals," Opinion, April 2 I have utilized my veteran status for medical care these last five years and have experienced excellent service at all levels. In addition to my routine physicals, I have been tested for and received hearing aids, tested for and did not need glasses and received several weeks of physical therapy for an arthritic hip. I was reluctant to sign up for Department of Veterans Affairs medical care because I had the idea that the treatment was substandard.

New to the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration hospital in 1962, Dr. Ilse Lowenstam realized that many patients were checking out of the residence-care program she oversaw — and in to nearby bars. "We didn't have a real program for alcoholics," Lowenstam later said. "They often had to be excluded from treatment because one of the rules was that they had to be sober to be admitted to the hospital. " Then 50, Lowenstam was a refugee from Nazi Germany who had barely escaped with her medical degree.

THE TYPICAL hospital patient is given the wrong medication or the wrong dose at least once a day, according to the Institute of Medicine, a research organization that advises Congress. The good news is that these mistakes are less likely to happen at a hospital run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Surprised?

The Department of Veterans Affairs said Friday that it is opening an investigation to learn whether patients at VA hospitals in the 1940s and 1950s were used improperly in nuclear medicine research projects. The probe, announced by Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown, follows decisions by the Defense Department and the Energy Department to review files to learn the scope of such experimentation. "We plan to leave no stone unturned in our review of this research," Brown said in a statement.

Forty-four veterans hospitals had "significantly elevated" rates of death among patients, and more than 5% of those who died were found to have received inappropriate care, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs report issued today. Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward J. Derwinski, who ordered the report released today, cautioned in a letter to Congress that "no general statement about the quality of care" in veterans hospitals "can be drawn from these findings." Nonetheless, Derwinski said, "we must try to do better."

Dad was a ballplayer, first for the old San Francisco Seals, then for the Cleveland Indians. Young Eddie grew up in the Bay Area, idolizing the "Big Boppers"--notably Willie Mays and Willie McCovey. Edward Montague Sr., as a scout, had signed Mays to his first contract, "and the first time I met him in the locker room, I walked right past (movie star) Jeff Chandler, didn't even see him, and Willie give me one of his gloves, brand new." The connection was strong, loyal, all-forgiving.

Veterans Administration hospitals are often lax in screening doctors to make sure they have no felony convictions and hold required licenses, according to a federal study that examined hiring procedures at VA hospitals in Sepulveda, San Diego and six other cities.

Veterans' hospitals are prepared for a new responsibility of treating U.S. military personnel wounded in the war against Iraq, Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward J. Derwinski told Congress today. "We will be able to absorb the flow of casualties," Derwinski said in testimony to the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the department. "The morale is high. We are ready to go," added Dr. James Holsinger, chief medical director of the department.

Marine Lance Cpl. Jorge Ortiz is in pain. A combat photographer, Ortiz was taking pictures of a captured weapons cache in Sangin, Afghanistan, on Jan. 15 when he stepped on a buried explosive device. Photos: Rehabilitating injured vets The blast ripped off his legs above the knees and snapped off four fingers on his left hand and the thumb on his right hand. Classified as a triple amputee, Ortiz is now an inpatient at the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto — one of four VA centers nationwide staffed and equipped specifically to treat the most grievously wounded U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Italian street artist Blu, whose anti-war mural was removed from the wall of the Geffen Contemporary building last week before the public could see it, has called the destruction of his mural by the Museum of Contemporary Art a form of censorship. Others say it was spectacularly bad planning on the part of the museum, which did not receive a proposal from the artist in advance of his starting work. MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch said Monday that he ordered the whitewash of the mural because its imagery ?

Allan Gardner, an 84-year-old World War II veteran from West Los Angeles, wanted to do something a little extra to help celebrate Veterans Day this year. Not that he hadn't already done plenty for those who served. Gardner has been on a 12-year tour of duty as a volunteer at the VA's West Los Angeles Medical Center, making weekly visits with his dog, G.G. (as in Good Girl). The former sailor and his standard poodle try to cheer up sick or injured vets, some of whom are in residential programs.

Development of a long-awaited subway link from downtown Los Angeles to the traffic-tangled Westside took a giant step Thursday when county transportation officials approved a general route along job- and population-heavy Wilshire Boulevard. FOR THE RECORD: Wilshire Boulevard subway: An article in the Oct. 29 Section A about the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's approval of a Wilshire Boulevard subway route gave 850,000 as the current annual attendance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The most recent annual attendance at the museum, which is along the proposed route, was 905,000.

Plans for a major expansion of the region's transit system are expected to move forward Thursday when transportation leaders select routes for two missing links in the county's rail network. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board will consider five options for the Westside subway extension as well as a $1.37-billion regional connector through downtown Los Angeles that would allow light rail users to travel across the county without time consuming transfers.

Recently, on KFI-AM 640's morning show, Bill Handel and Dick Morris were commenting on the healthcare bill. Morris sarcastically asked if Bill would want to go to a Veterans Affairs hospital or a private hospital for care. Both laughed as Bill indicated that, naturally, he would choose the private hospital. As a person who for more than 40 years has almost always used the Veterans hospital in various locales, I have an inside knowledge of what it is like to have outpatient and inpatient care there.

I am a surgery resident. As part of my training, I work at the Veterans Administration hospital in West L.A. It is popular among medical residents to bad-mouth the VA. The facilities are old. The staff can be government-style surly. It is hard to get things done. But while my work rotates me through all sorts of hospitals, my job is never quite as rewarding as when I am at the VA. I'm not really sure what makes the VA unlike any other kind of hospital.

On the golf course, a little undercounting is not unheard of as players shave a stroke or two from this hole or that one to make their score more bearable back at the clubhouse. But at the tiny clubhouse in Brentwood, two employees of a golf course operated by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center have made the biggest score of all, authorities say: by undercounting greens fees and concessionaire profits and pocketing thousands of dollars. The two have been fired and are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to theft of government funds from the popular links.