Author Archives: Jeff Jardine

NATIONAL NURSES WEEK BEGINS WITH VETERANS HELPING VETERANS
In 2019, Air Force veteran and registered nurse Patricia Scott-Cook first learned about the Veterans Homes of California-Barstow, near her home 30 minutes away in Silver Lakes. She quickly applied to work there, soon hired on, and is among the 1,000-plus nursing staff members throughout CalVet’s eight Veterans Homes of California. The same can be […]

CALL TO RIGHT FRIEND AT RIGHT TIME PUTS VETERAN ON RIGHT TRACK TO CALVET HOME LOAN
One day while working at CalVet headquarters in Sacramento, Craig Hollis got a call from Rod Totton, a Marine veteran and longtime personal friend. Totton expressed frustrations at his attempts to finance a home he wanted to buy in the Sacramento area. A foreclosure from more than a decade ago, along with some other issues, […]

FROM THE BIG SCREEN TO REDDING’S VETERANS HOME: ARMY VET’S VOICE STILL MUSIC TO THEIR EARS
REDDING – As residents mulled about at the Veterans Home of California-Redding one recent day, Bob Lewis broke into song. It’s something Lewis does often, to the joy of the Home’s staff, veterans, and their spouses. Some might think they are hearing him sing for the very first time. They might be wrong. Before Lewis […]

A BIG DOSE OF TEAMWORK BRINGS SUCCESS TO CALVET’S e-PRESCRIBE PHARMACY PROGRAM AT VETERANS HOMES
Early in December 2021, CalVet unveiled its new e-Prescribe software system that streamlined the process of prescribing medications for the more than 1,700 veteran residents and their spouses living at the eight Veterans Homes of California. It became the first element of CalVet’s Electronic Health Records Program (CEHR) to go live. All regular medication orders […]

NEW SKILLED NURSING FACILITY AT YOUNTVILLE HOME WILL BE VETERAN-CENTRIC FROM THE GROUND UP
Yountville – Of the veterans, by the veterans, for the veterans. The fingerprints of United States military veterans can and will be found all over the new $269 million, 240-bed skilled nursing facility and memory care center at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville, from the project’s conception to its eventual occupancy. Leadership at the California […]

VETS SAY WORK ON NEW SKILLED NURSING FACILITY AT YOUNTVILLE HOME ENCOURAGING AFTER TWO YEARS OF COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS
When the new skilled nursing facility opens at the Veterans Homes of California-Yountville (VHC-Yountville) in early 2024, it will provide more than a modern state-of-the-art skilled nursing facility (SNF) to replace the 90-year-old Nelson M. Holderman Hospital across the street. The $269 million, 240-bed facility will also bring a sense of relief and security to […]

VIETNAM WAR VETERANS DAY: FOUR FRESNO VETERANS, FOUR DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
One went to Vietnam as an advisor, years before American forces went en masse. One had the greatest peanut butter and jelly sandwich of his life while manning a gun mount on a destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf. One tended to Vietnam War wounded at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. And another spent […]

TIME CAPSULE BOX FOR NEW SKILLED NURSING FACILITY PROJECT IN BEST OF HANDS
YOUNTVILLE – On one recent afternoon, Gordon Kirby, with a steady hand and a thin saw blade, cut a notch in a thick piece of deodor cedar destined to become a footstool or small bench. The 75-year-old Navy veteran spends his days in the woodshop of the Creative Arts Center at the Veterans Home of […]

AS NEW YOUNTVILLE SKILLED NURSING FACILITY RISES, CALVET REMEMBERS THE NAMESAKE OF THE ONE IT WILL REPLACE
When the new $269 million skilled nursing facility opens at the Veterans Homes of California-Yountville, it will replace in function one of the campus’ oldest buildings, named for a true icon in the Napa Valley community and beyond. From the moment it opened in 1932, what later became the Nelson M (for Miles) Holderman Hospital […]

SIX MONTHS IN, DEPUTY SECRETARY WIMMER HAS VISION FOR WOMEN VETERANS AFFAIRS
In August 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Virginia Wimmer as CalVet’s Deputy Secretary of Women Veterans Affairs at CalVet. A veteran who spent 26 years in the United States Air Force, Wimmer left the service in 2012. She then began her new career as a veteran service officer with Solano County and then was appointed […]