DECEMBER 8, 2009
VA Employee Who Proposed Giving Leftover Medications To VA Patients A SAVE Award Finalist.
In continuing coverage, KOAA-TV Colorado Springs, CO (12/7) broadcast, "A Colorado woman is a finalist for President Obama's SAVE award," which recognizes the "best idea on how the government can perform better while saving money." Nancy Fichtner "says leftover medications at VA hospitals should be given to the patients when they are discharged, instead of just thrown away. The winning idea will be incorporated into the President's 2011 budget." This story was also covered by KKCO-TV Grand Junction, CO (12/7), which broadcast that Fichtner is an employee of the Grand Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the KJCT-TV Grand Junction, CO (12/7) website, and the Washington Post's (O'Keefe) "Federal Eye" blog.Impact: Cost reduction award finalist in VA
Survivors Gather In Hawaii To Remember Pearl Harbor's Fallen.
In
continuing coverage,(12/7) ABC broadcast, "It has been another solemn December 7th at Pearl
Harbor, the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack. About 50
survivors, men well up in their 80s now, their numbers dwindling,
gathered with service members and civilians" Wednesday. They
"assembled at a pier looking out over the spot where the USS Arizona
sank in the first minutes of the aerial assault that killed 1,177."
Impact:
Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
ceremony in Hawaii
Visiting VA Hospital Is Healing Experience.
Charles
Grodin's column in the
New York Daily News (12/8) is worth reading related to his
visits to a local VA medical center.
Government-Run Health Care Works.
A
letter to the editor of the
Augusta (GA) Chronicle (12/8) praises the Department of Veterans
Affairs, saying it "offers up a fine example of government run
health care. As a Vietnam veteran, I continue to benefit from the
excellent care provided by the Augusta VAMC."
Impact:
Editorials regarding Veterans