Photo: Saga Communications
Lawmakers on a veterans affairs committee said if a senior medical officer had some domain over the state veterans’ homes, maybe that system would be doing better.
State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (pictured) (D-Oswego), chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, is frustrated with how the department is set up and with the information she’s getting about it.
She and other members of the committee want the person in charge of the state nursing homes for veterans to have a medical background.
“It’s very vague, we can’t hire this person,” Kifowit said. “This position has been open for two years. It doesn’t seem like there was any motivation to get the position filled when the (previous) person retired. And the director is a political appointee by statute; there’s no requirement of any health or nursing home background.”
Normal, IL, USA / www.cities929.com
Mar 16, 2021 1:43 PM
(The Center Square) – Lawmakers continue to gather information regarding the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home.
Thirty-six residents died since the outbreak was discovered in November 2020. Republicans have repeatedly criticized Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s health department for taking more than 10 days to visit the facility after the outbreak was discovered.
The outbreak at LaSalle was first identified on Oct. 31, 2020, when a routine test on a staff member came back positive and a resident who was hospitalized for a separate issue tested positive.
Tony Kolbeck, chief of staff for the state VA department, told the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Tuesday that just over half of employees at the homes have received the vaccine.
The VA Southern Arizona Health Care System, subsidiary 678GG in Tucson, Arizona scheduled 2,443 pending appointments in September compared to 2,298 the previous month, according to data collected from the U.S. Department of Veteran s Affairs.
Of the total number of appointments, 2,425 had a wait time of 30 days or less (99.3%) and 18 appointments (0.7%) were scheduled more than 30 days out.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in January 2019 reported that wait times for new appointments at VA health care facilities were similar to or better than wait times at private-sector providers between 2014 and 2017.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), however, released a report in July 2019 that cautioned that the VA s data-tracking system only captures part of the appointment process and fails to account for the time that it takes the VA to enroll veterans in its health benefits program.
VA reports decrease in number of appointments at VA Southern Arizona HCS health facility in Green Valley (678GE) in September azbusinessdaily.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from azbusinessdaily.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For The Inter-Mountain
Photo Courtesy of West Virginia Legislative Photography
Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, makes a final plea for House members to support his discharge motion for the Defend the Guard Act.
CHARLESTON Once again, an attempt to move a bill prohibiting use of West Virginia’s civilian soldiers and airmen in combat except when Congress gives approval failed in the House of Delegates on Thursday.
Del. Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, made a motion Thursday morning to discharge House Bill 2138, the Defend the Guard Act, from the House Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security Committee where the bill has sat since Feb. 10. The motion would have sent the bill directly to the House Judiciary Committee. The motion failed 26-71 with bipartisan opposition.