The VA Secretary occupies probably the most thankless job in Washington. On the one hand the Secretary is expected to seamlessly provide the plethora of benefits and services a grateful nation offers veterans who have sacrificed body and mind in military service, and to those who need transition services. On the other, the Secretary must strictly obey all laws and follow all Administration poli...

We describe a course in the Veterans Affairs (VA) Employee Education System designed to engage nursing staff working in VA long-term care facilities as partners in antimicrobial stewardship. We found that the course addressed an important knowledge gap. Our outcomes suggest opportunities to engage nursing staff in advancing antimicrobial stewardship, particularly in the long-term care setting.

BACKGROUND In February 2002, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) increased copayments from $2 to $7 per 30-day drug supply of each medication for many veterans. We examined the impact of the copayment increase on lipid-lowering medication adherence. METHODS AND RESULTS This quasiexperimental study used electronic records of 5604 veterans receiving care at the Philadelphia VA Medical Cente...

A Galilean invariant weak-equilibrium hypothesis that is sensitive to streamline curvature is proposed. The hypothesis leads to an algebraic Reynolds stress model for curved ows that is fully explicit and self-consistent. The model is tested in curved homogeneous shear ow: the agreement is excellent with Reynolds stress closure model and adequate with available experimental data. This research ...

Hailing Yang, Graduate Student, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA Wei Zhang, Research Scientist, Advance and Applied Polymer Processing Institute, Institute of Advance Learning and Research, Danville, VA Ronald D, Moffitt, Director and Research Associate Professor, Advance and Applied Polymer Processing Institute, Institute of Advance Learning and Research, Danville, VA Thomas C. Ward, Professor, V...

From the Northwest Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, Veterans Affairs (VA) Puget Sound Health Care System, and the University of Washington — both in Seattle. Address reprint requests to Dr. Fihn at the Northwest Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence, VA Puget Sound Health Care System (152), 1660 S. Columbian Way, Seattle WA 98108, or at sfih...

Most veteran research is conducted in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare settings, although most veterans obtain healthcare outside the VA. Our objective was to determine the adequacy and relative contributions of Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), and Department of Defense (DOD) administrative databases for representing the U.S. veteran po...