“A wide-scale study of more than 1 million veterans indicates veterans receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ internal health care system compares favorably with community-based care veterans receive outside the network.”
“The study—Veterans’ Experiences with Outpatient Care: Comparing the Veterans Affairs System with Community-Based Care—assessed patient experiences for outpatient specialty, primary and mental health care in four dimensions: access to care, communication, coordination and provider rating.”
“’Patient experiences were better for VA than for community care in all respects except access,’ according to the study, which was led by Megan Vanneman, a research scientist at VA Salt Lake City Health Care System’s Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Science Center. Access scores were similar in mental health care and primary care, and community-based care access scores were only superior in specialty care…”
“The study’s results bookend a series of improvements the agency has made in customer experience…” Read the full article here.
Source: Veterans’ Experiences with VA’s Health Care System Improve – By Frank Konkel, September 8, 2020. Nextgov.