European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 10, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                August 1985 the stars and stripes Page 5 unnecessary admissions plague a hospitals t Washington a about on third of the patients studied in veterans administration hospitals in 1984 did not belong but were admitted because of mismanagement and poor testing by the general accounting office in a report released the congressional watch dog Agency concluded that the a could save billions of dollars on planned expansion by cutting unnecessary admissions and excessive stays at its 172 hospitals across the if the a continues to handle patients it will either have to expand its capacity to a greater extent than now projected or turn away Many of the veterans it expects to be seeking the Gao the report found that Hospital stays for Many patients could be reduced if a Hospital officials would adopt patient management practices used widely in the medical Vas Central office has issued policy guidelines which recommend using Many of these the Gao managers at the hospitals Gao visited have not fully implemented the policies and therefore keep patients hospitalized longer than the report said a corresponding review of 350 patients treated at seven a hospitals in 1982 found that 43 per cent of the Days they were admitted were medically avoid about half those excess Days resulted from poor patient such As admitting the patient and then need Lessly waiting several Days before performing the study the other half occurred when patients were kept in the Hospital because cheaper such As nursing Homes and hospice were a administrator Harry in a letter to the agreed with some of the criticism and said some problems cited already Are being he disputed whether savings would be As great As the report Walters also said that savings from shifting people to less out Hospital facilities is impossible if the facilities Are not unless it can be demonstrated that alternate treatment facilities actually existed and could have accommodated it does not seem reasonable for Gao to conclude that patients Are hospitalized he if such patients were not considered in determining the percentage of inappropriately hospitalized a the percent would be estimated As 20 instead of 43 As stated by Gao investigators cited the following examples of wasteful practices at a hospitals a Man was admitted on a Friday and remained Over the weekend awaiting a tuesday a Man with blood in his urine was admitted for tests that he should have had done As an a woman was admitted for seven Days for cancer tests she should have had As an a Man was kept 10 unnecessary Days before he was sent to a nursing the Gao report was based on two different reviews of a Hospital in the the Agency consultant team of doctors and nurses reviewed 350 randomly selected medical files of patients at seven hospitals who had been discharged in those hospitals were in Chicago West new Seattle and san in the second the gaos chief medical adviser visited six of the seven a hospitals in 1984 to evaluate conditions of patients in medical and surgical the medical adviser checked on nearly 800 representing about 44 percent of the Vas medical and surgical patients at the the adviser concluded that 244 or 31 did not belong in medical and surgical care and should have been treated in less costly private firms Security on bases called poor Washington a an internal military audit concludes that Security guards from private firms used at dozens of Navy bases in the United states Are doing a poor and have deficiencies ranging from a Lack of training to insufficient Secu Rity the released thursday by James examined the work of private Security guards at Navy bases in 24 communities from Florida to among the 69 separate contracts the work performed by under 30 contracts was declared in our unless the current Cali Ber of contracted Security services can be significantly which we consider infeasible because of contract inflexibility and Lack of the Navy should Dis continue contracting for Security fun the auditors the dated May was per formed by the naval audit How Ard had requested it last year after reports that a private Security firm at the Earle naval weapons station in his District had a poor performance before submitting their the Audi tors spoke to Navy officials about the prob lems that were their responses were included in the re and in an accompanying the auditors said the management responses received indicate that satisfactory action is being taken on All no further action is required among the problems found by auditors was that Many of the even when required by did not have Security of the 246 guards examined who were required to have or 37 did the auditors it is essential that individuals assigned to enforce this program Are eligible and from a Security to protect and safeguard Navy property and the report also concluded that the Navy had not developed sufficient standards to judge whether potential contractors were qualified for the it found that a number of the guards lacked Security training and were unqualified for the use of contractors also frequently did a poor Job of keeping records on the qualifications of their pm it the report did not specify where each problem was the auditors examined private Security forces at Navy facilities in Washington and in Panama Cecil Field and Saint Ini a Tuxen Silver Spring and be Portsmouth and Williams Barbers Point and Pearl Hawaii Seal port Point san Long Beach and treasure Cleveland Philadelphia and marijuana crackdown is says Meese Washington a attorney general Edwin Meese Iii said thursday the governments marijuana crackdown has disposed of plants and spurred peo ple to report pot crops previously undetected by since state and local agents joined monday in a series of raids on marijuana Meese there have been 175 73 weapons seized and the discovery of about 600 opium Meese indicated officials were somewhat taken Aback by the opium discoveries in Michigan and but said he did not think that represented a new he said it seemed the poppies were being grown As an Experiment to see if it can be done economically or the attorney general said he was especially pleased that during the course of the raids Many people called police to report marijuana crop As citizens see that were serious about the marijuana they Are now re porting to the police plots of marijuana that Are being grown which have not previously been known by the Law enforcement Agen Meese told a news the fact that the citizens themselves recognize the seriousness of the problem Means were learning More about the Loca Tion of the marijuana he the department had said earlier that Al though this weeks raids Are especially in the eradication Effort will continue throughout the harvesting asked Why there were no More than 175 arrests Meese to very few people sit on their marijuana crops waiting for police to arrest Connecticut neighbors upset so Why Nof a polka Dot tub up the occupants of a Rainbow hued House painted Violet and Turquoise say they will not change the color or remove the beige toilet and polka Dot Bathtub from the Lawn despite complaints by i think its disgusting and it makes the neighbourhood look like a big laughing Robert Trapp said wednes he is among the residents who signed a petition asking town officials to Force the occupants to make the House conform with the conventional Homes of the Dax Tine and Ruby owners of the said they consider it a work of the kids love it and its perfectly suited for what we said a 38yearold he said the colors were selected in the spirit of Walt a freelance artist who also does window Dis said she and Tine put extensive planning and thought into creating just the right we did t do it for the she the couple began to work on the House last year and completed the outside a few weeks we wanted something our three children would Tine Point ing out the yellow walk leading to the a 4foottall Pink and Lavender Bird Bathtub and sign marked of on the front angry neighbors fear the Home is reducing the Market value of their they have made a mockery of this conservative said Raymond the House is attracting More traffic than this Short Street can safely the town sanitarian and a building code in Spector scrutinized the property two weeks ago As a result of the they found Only two violations the House number was not painted in a contrasting color and the couples White Fantail which were classified Aspi were not allowed on residential since then Lou and Tine have repainted the House number and the building code inspector has classified the Birds As neighbors said they will not give up the fight until the town forces the couple to remove the ornaments and tone Down the color of the town manager Frank Connolly said because the House is not in a historic any attempt to restrict the colors would violate the owners civil its really a Tough he the solution rests with the neighbors getting together and trying to Iron out their Sands of time in the stars and stripes 40 years ago 1945 in a Stark communique from Carl Spaatz announced that a second atomic bomb was dropped on on aug the soviet Union invaded Manchuria within minutes after Moscow declaration of War became effective Midnight 30 years ago today eight men escaped death at Edwards when the worlds fastest rocket plane exploded seconds before its scheduled release from the belly of a b29 20 years ago 1965 american buyers predicted that the Short skirts shown in Paris would come Down to cover the Knees by the time the copies showed up in raised hems made their appearance on Paris streets the previous 70 years ago today 1975 the ruling Threeman Junta ordered Portugal politically moderate officers suspended from the influential revolutionary