Talk:Veterans Administration Hospital (disambiguation)

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Content dispute over link to List of Veterans Affairs medical facilities

This is a spillover from my talk page. To summarize the action so far:

I believe that the primary meaning of Veterans Administration Hospital (or Veterans Administration Medical Center) is to refer to one of the medical facilities operated by U.S. Veterans Administration (now the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs). Accordingly, after noticing this page, I moved the "see also" reference out of the "see also" section and into the lead, where I wrote:

Veterans Administration Hospital or Veterans Administration Medical Center is a term used to refer to one of the medical facilities operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Doncram apparently disagrees, and he reverted my changes. On my talk page, he said: "I think your edit is technically bringing the dab page a bit further out of full compliance with Dab guidelines."

Given the vehemence of Doncram's disagreement, I guess we need to discuss whether there is a primary meaning of the name "Veterans Administration Hospital." The long-existing "Veterans Administration" was renamed when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was formed in 1989, but the well-known shorthand "VA" is still in use. My best guess is that Doncram believes that people no longer think of VA hospitals as "Veterans Administration hospitals," so there is no longer a primary meaning of the term, and it is now encountered mostly only in reference to the National Register of Historic Places listing names for several old hospital buildings that are listed on the National Register.

What do others think regarding the primary meaning of this name? --Orlady (talk) 14:02, 25 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Comment The term refers to the function, not the explicit building. To me, a "VA Hospital" is a verbal shorthand for which ever of the VA Medical Center / InClinic / Outpatient Clinic / Rehabilitation Facility / ... is being referred to; if some place other than the large local one is referred to, it will be so noted, eg. "St. Cloud VA Hospital", if the conversation is occurring in the Minneapolis-St.Paul Minnesota area, where the "VA Hospital" -- without other label -- is referring to the "new" VA Medical Center (and outbuildings.) I don't know what its official name is; I went there for treatment before it was built, while it was being built, and still go there every seven weeks to donate blood. There are few in the Twin Cities that don't know what I'm referring to. Its official name might bring questioning looks, just as the new "Terminal 1" and "Terminal 2" freeway airport signs do (people found "Lindbergh" and "Humphrey" confusing.} There may be buildings whose literal name is "Veterans Administration Hospital", here or there; they are also VA Hospitals, but they are not at all the only ones. --- edit: it seems to be called "Building 70" in some uses, this may a left-over from the sprawling many buildings and Quonset huts that were there before it was built. htom (talk) 06:03, 26 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Further, in the last two months, I've paid attention to the signs. The freeway signs all say "V A Med/ Center" or "V A Med Ctr", depending on whether it's a two line or one line presentation. Street signs are mostly "V A Medical Center". I don't remember seeing any signs saying "Veterans Affairs" anything or "Veterans Administration" anything (in many places the V A used is the glyph of the two letters run together.) There is one old sign, in the front entrance, that proclaims "Veterans Bureau", probably left over from the 1930's. There are some very old signs on private property pointing to "V A Hospital", "V A Buildings", "V A Center", and "V A Parking" (and "No V A Parking"!)htom (talk) 21:33, 10 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]