Talk:Veterans Health Administration

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 21 January 2020 and 30 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Dchild21.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 12:20, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

controversy
Wouldn't it be appropriate to include a section on the various controversies surrounding bad conditions at VA facilities and other recent scandals and controversies regarding care of veterans and soldiers?nf utvol (talk) 20:43, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Only if the controversies are really encyclopedia worthy. See WP:WEIGHT, WP:SOAP, WP:IINFO and others. Antisoapbox (talk) 16:50, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Ad-like
The first paragraph of this entry seems to read like an advertisement. And as mentioned before, there definitely should be some discussion of the controversies surrounding the organization. I'm not knowledgeable enough to do the editing though... User7145 (talk) 16:28, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

VA gives phenomenal care
My father, a retiree and POW, received treatment at the VA. Originally, 20 years ago, he was unhappy with their service. The VA revamped their operations about 10 years ago and he said the difference was like night and day. He was VERY pleased with the health care he received.

I have worked in hospitals for nearly 25 years now. Everywhere I hear the horror stories. I remember once a doc amputated the wrong leg on a diabetic male. Man is not perfect and mistakes are going to happen. Just because the VA serves veterans does not mean they are automatically going to be the BEST hospital.

Thank you for not putting in notes of scandals regarding the VA. They do the best job they can with what they have. For the quantity of veterans they serve every year, I think they do a phenomenal job!Hospital worker (talk) 16:44, 12 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Might be interesting and notable to show information concerning the rates of malpractice-type problems compared with private medical care. Don't have to criticize, just show the statistics.  I'm sure there is an article out there somewhere.--119.224.14.7 (talk) 06:01, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree, there are actually many good sources on the quality of care and the fact that VHA docs aren't subject malpractice issues. I added some info on this and reorganized a bit.  Will try to come back to add cite template. Antisoapbox (talk) 16:52, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, there are many good sources on VA quality of care, which has been consistently found to be comparable to or better than care in the private sector. They are not difficult to find, and the fact that none of them are reported here says much about the level of bias in this wiki article. Try this for a start: http://www.rand.org/blog/2012/08/socialized-or-not-we-can-learn-from-the-va.html   — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.7.25.154 (talk) 15:08, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

VA Gives phenomenal health care
I appreciate all that the VA does for veterans especially my dad. I do think there is plenty of room for improvement. I have been to appointments and they way that people speak to not only him but other veterans is horrifying! I have had friends that have worked for the VA and after a short period of time because they go in wanting to make a difference and when they where denied the opportunity to do that they had to leave. I feel that there should be facts as to the reason why you feel that the VA gives phenomenal service. Gigi2376 (talk) 20:07, 19 March 2017 (UTC)Gigi2376Gigi2376 (talk) 20:07, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

Comparison of the related terms in popularity....

 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+veteran+health+administration&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

--222.67.207.131 (talk) 01:23, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+veteran+affairs&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_vis=0

--222.67.207.131 (talk) 01:27, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?as_q=veteran+affair&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en

--222.67.207.131 (talk) 01:28, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_q=veterans+affairs&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en

The reason for scientific administrations......

 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?as_q=geriatrics+veterans+affairs&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en

--222.67.207.131 (talk) 01:46, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?as_q=scientific+administration&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en

--222.67.207.131 (talk) 01:48, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_q=scientific+administrations&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en

--222.67.207.131 (talk) 01:50, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+%22scientific+administration%22&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

About the topic of Retirement village

 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?as_q=retirement+village+health&num=10&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&as_sdt=1.&as_sdtp=on&as_sdts=5&hl=en


 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+retirement+villages+health&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0


 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+retirement+village&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

--222.67.207.131 (talk) 02:03, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=allintitle%3A+retirement+villages&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

--222.67.207.131 (talk) 02:33, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?as_q=%E9%80%80%E4%BC%91%E6%9D%91&num=10&btnG=%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2%E5%AD%A6%E6%9C%AF&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=title&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&hl=zh-CN

Please do not auto-direct the topic of Retirement village to Retirement community. These two are different concepts, the former is more closely associated with housing and the later social although they are related --222.67.207.131 (talk) 02:08, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

V.A. Hospital Scandal
I am creating an article for the topic and would like to add material here also without objection. my proposed edit would include a section on the scandal and or in the electronic records section as the locus of the findings so far are of appointments purposely not entered into record.

Congressman McCarthy, said "If the president truly did not know about these scandals and mistakes, we should doubt his ability to properly manage the leviathan government that he helped create." Retired VA Dr. Sam Foote described an "official" list and "a sham list" with much longer wait times than the 14 day benchmark, up to 12 months causing several deaths. "they enter information into the computer and do a screen capture hard copy printout. They then do not save what was put into the computer so there's no record that you were ever here,"
 * The VA hospital scandal arose from claims 40 vets died waiting for medical care in Phoenix. The President and Eric Shinseki, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, both said they are “mad as hell” about the treatment of sick veterans. the allegations suggest the patients were not put on a doctor waiting list until an appointment could be made in less than 14 days, thus enabling administrators to earn a bonus for timely processing. the scandal has now spread to 9 hospitals.

Results
Sharon Helman, director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, has been placed on leave. Robert Petzel, the VA undersecretary for health resigned a day after giving testimony to congress regarding the allegations. Rachael Maddow explained the resignation was actually planned before the scandal and will not impact the failures in the V.A. Three supervisors of the VA hospital in Gainesville Fl were placed on leave after an audit team found appointments made on paper but not entered into the data network. Darkstar1st (talk) 09:04, 22 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Hi I have started a new article at Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014. Please contribute there or contribute more to a summary of information in the VHA article. Thanks! --Pine✉  07:32, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

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Evaluations in JAMA and JAMA Internal Medicine
These are the most recent reviews of the evaluations of the VA system, and therefore the most authoritative:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2664026 November 21, 2017 Advancing High Performance in Veterans Affairs Health Care David Atkins, MD, MPH1; Carolyn M. Clancy, MD2 JAMA. 2017;318(19):1927-1928. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.17667 VA hospitals performed better than non-VA hospitals for most outcome measures—including lower rates of inpatient safety events such as pressure ulcer, iatrogenic pneumothorax, and central line–associated bloodstream infection—and lower 30-day mortality and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (MI), pneumonia, heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. At the same time, VA hospitals scored lower for patient experience and behavioral health. The finding that VA hospitals perform better on quality when compared with hospitals in the private sector is not novel. A 2017 review of 69 published studies reported that the VA performed as well as, or better than, private health care systems on most quality measures. Additionally, the VA has higher screening rates for colon cancer (82% vs a national average within the 60% range), has reduced the number of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus infections (infections in the intensive care unit declined 72%, from 1.64 to 0.46/1000 patient-days, 2007-2012), and achieves lower 30-day mortality than private hospitals for patients older than 65 years hospitalized for acute MI and heart failure.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2618816 Research Letter June 2017 Initial Public Reporting of Quality at Veterans Affairs vs Non–Veterans Affairs Hospitals Eddie Blay Jr, MD1; John Oliver DeLancey, MD, MPH1; D. Brock Hewitt, MD, MPH1; et al Jeanette W. Chung, PhD1; Karl Y. Bilimoria, MD, MS1 Author Affiliations: Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center, Department of Surgery and Center for Healthcare Studies, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177(6):882-885. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.0605 Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced the inclusion of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital performance data on its Hospital Compare website.1 Prior to this release, comparisons of quality at VA vs non-VA hospitals were inconclusive and had methodological limitations.2,3 Given longstanding concerns about care at VA hospitals,4 our objective was to compare available outcome, patient experience, and behavioral health measures between VA and non-VA hospitals. --Nbauman (talk) 21:35, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

Here's the critical part of the table from Blay that compares mortality from VA and non-VA hospitals. In other words, if you go to a random VA hospital with AMI, you have a 9% chance of death, but if you go to a random non-VA hospital with a matched AMI, you have a 14% chance of death.

Table 1. Outcomes at VA vs Non-VA Hospitals 30-Day Mortality (Rates per 100 Discharges [95% CI])

Abbreviations: AMI, acute myocardial infarction; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; PNA, pneumonia --Nbauman (talk) 02:21, 31 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Here's citation 2 from Atkins:
 * https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11606-016-3775-2
 * Comparing VA and Non-VA quality of care: a systematic review.
 * O'Hanlon C, Huang C, Sloss E, et al.
 * J Gen Intern Med. 2017;32:105-121.
 * The Veterans Affairs (VA) system was lauded for achieving system-wide improvements in the quality of care during the 1990s and 2000s. More recently it has drawn criticism for poor access to care at some facilities, exacerbated in part by gaming data to achieve quality targets. This systematic review found that VA hospitals provide equally safe care compared to non-VA hospitals across most medical and surgical hospitalizations, and generally (but not always) provided more effective care. The performance and recent challenges faced by the VA system were discussed in a 2014 editorial.
 * https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11606-016-3775-2.pdf
 * 10.1007_s11606-016-3775-2.pdf
 * --Nbauman (talk) 02:25, 31 March 2018 (UTC)

FEMA seizing coronavirus protections, add here?
From edits at 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United States article: "5 million masks meant for hospitals of the Veterans Health Administration were seized by FEMA and redirected to the federal stockpile, stated Richard Stone, the leader of the agency for veterans, in late April. Employees of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals had been complaining of a lack of protective gear for weeks, but the agency for veterans denied that any shortages existed. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents many Veterans Affairs employees, stated that nurses are using surgical masks and face shields instead of more protective N95 masks." X1\ (talk) 02:57, 29 April 2020 (UTC)