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YOUNTVILLE VETERANS HOME PROBE MAY REVEAL THE
OBVIOUS -- No one should be surprised if the
findings suggest
there are not as many nurses or doctors as we
would like.
State VA Home at Yountville, California.
For more about the Yountville veterans home and
the state probe, use the VA Watchdog search
engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=yountville&op=and
Story here...
http://www.napavalley
register.com/articles/2007/09/09/o
pinion/editorial/doc46e33432b
7365731056854.txt
Story below:
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Vets Home probe may reveal the obvious
OPINION
The flash and fire of the Sacramento hearing on conditions at the
Veterans Home of California at Yountville is behind us now.
State lawmakers have authorized a five-month probe of conditions at the
home, and the action is likely to slow as inspectors embark on a
comprehensive look at a sprawling complex that is literally a city on a
hill, with 1,100 veterans and nearly as many workers.
While the outcome of the probe is still months away, there are some
matters that shouldn’t surprise lawmakers — who, after all, set the
budget for the California Department of Veterans Affairs.
There is a nationwide shortage of qualified nurses. Facilities that do
not offer the highest pay or best conditions — or are located in areas
where the cost of living is high — are going to have trouble attracting
and retaining the most qualified workers, including doctors. These
conditions affect the Yountville Vets Home.
But the Vets Home has much going for it.
First of all, it employs many dedicated workers — some veterans
themselves, many others the sons or daughters of veterans — who feel
fortunate to do the hard work of supporting vets and their spouses in
their sunset years. After all, the residents gave the best years of
their lives, and in some cases gave their limbs, in defense of the
United States.
Second, the home has long supported a voice for veterans through the
Allied Council, some of whose members played a role in instigating the
legislative probe. Listening to the residents is essential for the
home’s success, and administrators have a strong track record in this
area.
In recent years, Vets Home Administrator Marcella McCormack and others
have made strides in adding to the critical features of the Vets Home,
with new projects to provide better treatment for victims of Alzheimer’s
disease and a separate effort to care for the veterans of the current
and previous war in the Middle East, whose have in some respects
experienced drastically different traumas and conditions than those
faced by their older brothers and sisters in arms.
These changes in the face of stagnant state budgets show a vibrant force
at work in Yountville.
Whether the current administration has succeeded on fronts will be laid
bare by the exhaustive state probe.
If the record shows the Vets Home has failed its residents, then let the
recriminations and reforms begin.
But no one should be surprised if the findings suggest there are not as
many nurses or doctors as we would like; and it doesn’t take a special
hearing for lawmakers to see that these conditions have persisted for
years.
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Larry Scott --
