VA Maryland Health Care System

Military Order of the Purple Heart Contributes $5,000 for Veteran Patients at the Baltimore VA Medic

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April 18, 2008

The Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter 122 in Annapolis, recently donated $5,000 for new flat screen televisions for two inpatient medical care units at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center, a division of the VA Maryland Health Care System.  Since January 2008, this veterans service organization has donated a total of $10,000 toward the flat screen television fundraising project at the Baltimore VA Medical Center. 

Currently, hospitalized veterans who share a room on the medical care units at the Baltimore VA Medical Center also have to share a television.  Since the medical center serves a diverse veteran population with generational differences, it can be challenging for some patients to agree on television programming choices. 

According to R. David Edwards, Chief, Public and Community Relations, VA Maryland Health Care System, “Adding flat screen televisions by each patient bed will allow each hospitalized veteran to make his/her own individual viewing choices and will help to improve patient comfort levels, which can aid the healing and recovery process for our veteran patients.”

The Cambridge VA Outpatient Clinic, which is located at 830 Chesapeake Drive in Cambridge, Maryland, is the largest outpatient clinic in the VA Maryland Health Care
System with over 25,000 outpatient visits a year.  Many of the veterans who are treated at the clinic need hearing aids, but are ineligible under VA federal guidelines to receive them.  

At a cost of $600 to $1,300 per two devices, the expensive hearing aids are in great demand and supplies diminish quickly.  Veterans must be enrolled in the VA health care system and obtain a referral from their primary care provider in order to receive the hearing aids.  Although hearing aids are free to veterans through this program, a co-pay and other charges may apply for related services such as evaluations and fittings. 

“Because of the generosity of the community, local businesses and veterans service organizations, such as the American Legion Dorchester Post 91, countless numbers of veterans now have hearing aids who might otherwise not be able to afford them,”  says Karen Windsor, Nurse Manager for the Cambridge VA Outpatient Clinic.