SAN FRANCISCO — State and federal investigations will determine what, if any, changes in VA laboratory policies will result from the death of a researcher in San Francisco.

WASHINGTON — VA’s goal within two years is to have a claims-adjudication system that gets a first-time claim decision to a veteran within 125 days with 98% accuracy.

WASHINGTON — Women already are fulfilling critical roles in the U.S. military, and new changes to DoD rules will allow women to officially serve even closer to the front lines in a variety of occupations, including medical positions.  

WASHINGTON — Gaps in VA’s nurse-competency practices might be putting patients at risk, according to an investigation by VA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The report found that nurses went years without being assessed for their proficiency on equipment, and, many times, when they failed to demonstrate competency, VA hospitals took no action.

WASHINGTON — While Congress has yet to agree on a way forward to avoid a series of automatic federal budget cuts slated to go into effect in 2013, the Obama administration has made it clear that VA medical programs would not be slashed as a result of those cuts.

For the first time in nearly 40 years, a U.S. servicemember died last year from rabies because of an overseas exposure to an infected dog, according to the national Centers for Disease Control, which emphasized that overseas travelers, including deployed military, need to be warned of the risks.

WASHINGTON —VA’s announcement that 1,900 mental-health staff will be added to its roster is more reactive than proactive, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told legislators at a recent hearing.  

SAN FRANCISCO — The full 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that it lacks jurisdiction to overhaul VA’s mental-health system, as requested in a class-action suit claiming that VA does not provide mental healthcare in a timely factor.

WASHINGTON — A human clinical trial this year for a vaccine designed to protect against all four serotypes of the dengue virus is giving military researchers hope that they are closer to developing a vaccine against the debilitating disease.

WASHINGTON — All branches of military service now are mandated to set up special units to investigate allegations of sexual assault crimes, which will go through a dedicated court-martial process.