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news
VA Hospital taking
safety precautions
By Jeanne Hoffa
On-line Forty-Niner
The Veteran's Affair
Hospital on 7th Street remained on alert Wednesday, after
two hijacked airplanes crashed into both buildings of the
World Trade Center, and one plane crashed into the Pentagon
on Tuesday.
Uniformed police
officers continued to camp out at the Veteran's Affairs Hospital
parking lot entrances Wednesday, checking driver's identification
and inquiring as to visitor's business before allowing them
to drive onto hospital grounds as a security precaution after
the terrorist attacks on the East Coast.
While the 517-bed
federal facility has been on full-alert since Tuesday, it
has stayed open and operated almost business as usual, said
VA spokesperson Estella Murray.
Official's main
activity has been to minimize the way people could gain entrance
to the building.
The circle drive
in front of the Tower Building 126, the main area where patients
are dropped off and picked up in cars, remained closed.
Security guards
stood at all outside doors to the facility, which currently
houses 255 admitted patients and employs 1,847 healthcare,
administrative and custodial workers. Guards and the rest
of the hospital staff have been instructed to keep an eye
out for anything suspicious, Murray said.
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