Veteran’s Administration

My day job is as a civil service electrician for the last thirty-four years at the Veteran s Administration hospital. March 5, 2006,1 had thirty-four years with civil service. After duty at the VA hospital, all the rest is a volunteer as a firefighter, rescue worker, or helping the county sheriff and the State Highway Patrol as an interpreter. Basically, I stay pretty busy. The federal government gave us three fire vehicles after the chlorine gas incident because our old equipment was done-in by corrosion caused directly by poison chlorine gas. This gas took the paint and chrome off our fire vehicles so it was unusable for any other purpose what do you think it did to my lungs and body at the same time ... 

With the notable exception of the Veteran s Administration (VA) hospital system, health care providers, both in primary care and mental health care, do a relatively poor job of identifying PTSD. There are two basic steps to diagnosing PTSD (1) determining that the patient has been exposed to a traumatic event, and (2) determining that the trauma-exposed patient is experiencing symptoms that fulfill diagnostic criteria for the disorder. 

One British study found amphetamine to be no different than placebo in the treatment of depressed outpatients (188) a second study found amphetamine less effective than phenelzine and no better than placebo (189) and a Veteran s Administration (VA) study found dextroamphetamine no more effective than placebo in hospitalized depressed patients (1,90). Uncontrolled clinical evidence indicates that amphetamine may occasionally be of value, but, except for a mild, early, transient benefit, there is no evidence that amphetamine can ameliorate moderate-to-severe depressive episodes. 

Stephen M. Stahl is Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and Chairman, Neuroscience Education Institute, Carlsbad. He has conducted numerous research projects awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Veteran s Administration, and the pharmaceutical industry. The author of more than 300 articles and chapters, Stephen Stahl is an internationally recognized clinician, researcher and teacher in psychiatry with subspecialty expertise in psychopharmacoiogy. 

Received May 12, 1978. This study was supported by the Medical Research Service of the Veteran s Administration Hospital. 

Defilippi, J.L. Personal Communication on Approved Scope of Psychiatric Pharmacy Practice in the Veteran s Administration Mental Hygiene Clinic, Waco, Texas , May 2001. 

Dishman, B. Personal Communication on Approved Scope of Practice for Psychiatric Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at the Veteran s Administration Healthcare system, La, /olla, California , July 2001. 

Each of the six pharmaceutical companies GAO studied in Phase I had government contracts with the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. Veteran s Administration. Relying on the access to records clauses in these contracts, GAO sent a letter to each company requesting ... 

Fly [5], makes an excellent case for the use and transfer of such aviation practices to healthcare. Even though the industries are very different, many of the concepts and practices within aviation are directly transferable to healthcare. The hospitals within the Veteran s Administration have already embraced and implemented many of these concepts through its National Center for Patient Safety (see http // www.patientsafety.gov). 

Burr, M., Sorra, J., Nieva, V. and Famolaro, T. 2002. Analysis of the Veteran s Administration (VA) National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) Patient Safety Questionnaire. Unpublished technical report. 

Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Utah Center for Photo-Medicine, University of Utah and the Veteran s Administration Medical Center Salt Lake City, Utah, USA... 

Alba A, Solomon M, Trainor FS. Management of respiratay Insufficiency in spinal cord lesions. In Proceedings of the I7th Veteran s Administration Spinal Cord Injury Conference, 1969. US Government Printing Office No. 0-436-398 (101), 1971 200-213. 

Reitherman R (1986) How to prepare a hospital for an earthquake. Disaster Manag 4 119-131 Veterans Administration (1972) Post earthquake emergency utility services and access facilities, CD-54. Veteran s Administration, Washington, DC Wright R, Kramer S (1973) Building perfinmance in the 1972 Managua Earthquake. National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC... 

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