Dear Sgt. Shaft:
What do you think of a federally funded agency, headquartered here in Washington, D.C., that has elected not to recognize Veteran's Day as one of its 10 holidays? This agency, the Legal Services Corporation, has opted to "substitute" the Friday after Thanksgiving as an agency-designed holiday.

This agency is funded entirely by federal appropriations of about $284.0 million a year. I wonder if any other federal or "quasi-federal" agency dishonors our veterans in this way. Please check it out. Thanks and keep up the good work.

S.F.
Alexandria, VA

Shaft kudos

To good friend Connie Morella (R-MD) for spearheading a Congressional letter-writing campaign enlisting support of the entire metropolitan DC congressional delegation (Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-DC; Steny Hoyer, D-MD; Albert Wynn, D-MD; James Moran, D-VA; Frank Wolf, R-VA, and Tom Davis, R-VA), on behalf of the expansion and renovation of the Washington, DC VA Medical Center. In their letters to House Committee on Veterans Affairs Chair Bob Stump (R-AZ), Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo West, and James T. Walsh (R-NY), Chair of the Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies, the members write:

"The Department of Veterans Affairs operates hundreds of major medical facilities in the United States which are responsible for the health care needs of our veterans. Many of the 400,000 veterans residing in the Washington, DC metropolitan area currently receive health care from the Washington, DC VA Medical Center. Consistent with trends in the health care industry, the VA Medical Center is shifting from care provided in an inpatient setting to an outpatient, ambulatory care approach. However, the building's existing configuration is not well suited for ambulatory care. The current facility, built in 1965, was designed for inpatient care. It is in need of major renovation in order to accommodate this dramatic shift in health care services.

It is imperative that the Washington, DC, VA Medical Center proposal for the expansion and renovation of an outpatient clinic be adequately funded. The Center presently accommodates over 400,000 annual outpatient visits in a crowded and inefficiently designed space. The congested conditions affect staff, visitors, and patients. The proposed expansion will improve care as physicians will be able to treat veterans in a more efficient manner by consolidating services and improving the application of resources.

The $27,000,000 outpatient clinic expansion project is of great importance to veterans in the metropolitan area. The renovation will be able to provide improved care by decreasing the average waiting time for appointments. The plan calls for a doubling of the number of exam rooms, allowing physicians to work out of two exam rooms instead of being limited to a solitary room. Extensive documentation shows that the proposed project will allow existing staff to see a significant increase in patients.

Doubling the number of exam rooms will also allow specialists and ancillary support, such as dieticians, to see the patient in their primary care clinic. This will eliminate the need for the patient to seek out a specialist in another location within the medical center.

Lastly, the proposed project will renovate the dialysis unit and laboratory space. Both of these clinical settings have not been refurbished since the facility opened in the early 1960s.

The VA Medical Center expansion is essential to ensure that the veterans served by the facility will receive quality and timely health care. Thank you for your consideration and support for the funding of this outpatient clinic renovation that will provide a first-class ambulatory medical care environment that is deserving of our veterans."

The Sarge lauds Representatives Morella, Holmes Norton, Hoyer, Wynn, Moran, Wolf, and Davis for their effort. The Washington, DC VA Medical Center should be the consummate VA medical facility with its reputation and quality of care on par with Walter Reed and Bethesda military medical centers.

To the DC VA Medical Center for its mobile health clinic that will travel to veteran populations in Maryland, northern Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The clinic, which opened January 27, "will provide check-ups, preventive medical screening examinations, and patient education and counseling," said Sanford M. Garfunkel, medical center director. The clinic will also offer enrollment into the VA Health System, issue veteran identification cards, check on patient information, and schedule appointments. Primary locations for the mobile clinic visits will be VFW and American Legion posts. The mobile clinic will visit these locations twice a month. Hours of operation are 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.