Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
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Poor Integration Between Hospital EHRs And NICUs
Responding to my story about lack of funding for electronic health records for pediatric nursing homes, Brian Carter, a superb neonatologist at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, notes... Read More »
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Private Insurers Have Cost Medicare $282.6 Billion In Excess Payments Since 1985
Researchers say privately run Medicare Advantage plans have undermined traditional Medicare’s fiscal health and taken a heavy toll on taxpayers, seniors and the U.S. economy Read More »
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RAND Corporation study: VA Health System Generally Delivers Higher-Quality Care Than Other Health Providers
The VA health care system performs similar to or better than non-VA systems on most measures of inpatient and outpatient care quality, although there is high variation in quality across individual VA facilities, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Examining a wide array of commonly used measures of health care quality, researchers found that VA hospitals generally provided better quality care than non-VA hospitals and the VA's outpatient services were better quality when compared to commercial HMOs, Medicaid HMOs and Medicare HMOs...“Consistent with previous studies, our analysis found that the VA health care system generally provides care that is higher in quality than what is offered elsewhere in communities across the nation,” said Rebecca Anhang Price, lead author of the study and senior policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.
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Regenstrief Institute Research Scientist Theresa Cullen, M.D., Receives Women In Leadership Award
Regenstrief Institute research scientist Theresa Cullen, M.D., has won a Leading for Impact, Women in Leadership award. The award recognizes women who are creating impact and leading programs across the federal technology, health and consulting community. The award is given by FedHealthInnovation & Technology (FedHealthIT), which is a consolidated news source for information related to federal health agencies. Dr. Cullen also is the associate director of the Regenstrief Institute Global Health Informatics program and the interim director of strategic planning and communications for LOINC. She recently led a project to help the United States government's Indian Health Service identify and define its needs for a new health information technology system.
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Remember The VA Replacement Scheduling Project?
Daniel Dellinger, national commander of the American Legion, told lawmakers at a hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee today that lack of a replacement for the replacement system has, over the past five years, contributed to long patient wait times at multiple VA medical facilities...
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Report Spreads Blame For VA Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak
Systemic failures at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System allowed a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak to fester, even as leaders believed they were solving the problem, a Tribune-Review analysis of a report by the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General found. Read More »
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Restoring Trust In VA Health Care
It has been nearly 20 years since the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the subcabinet agency that oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system, implemented a series of sweeping reforms that markedly improved quality, boosted access, and increased efficiency.1,2 Recent revelations about long wait times for veterans compounded by systematic cover-up by VHA administrators make it clear that reforms are again needed...
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Review: PTSD Resources Lacking for Nonveterans
Post-traumatic stress disorder remains a difficult, urgent, and prevalent problem among combat veterans, but millions of nonveterans experience the condition too. A new study in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry finds that compared to what the Veterans Health Administration and Defense Department make available, treatment resources for nonveterans are much less cohesive and helpful. "For the other people affected by PTSD -- victims of sexual assault, child abuse and natural disasters -- there really isn't an organized body of research that generates guidance for how they and their caregivers should deal with their PTSD," said lead author Judith Bentkover...
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Roger Baker: Why VA's Electronic Health Record Mega-Project is Failing
The Department of Veterans Affairs currently is reassessing its $16 billion-plus Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) effort. Faced with productivity and patient safety issues in its initial pilot site, further rollouts of the EHRM have been paused by VA Secretary Denis McDonough. And while VA has not yet announced the details of the actions it will take to correct the EHRM program, those actions must include addressing the program's fundamental problems, not just the readily apparent quality and productivity problems surfaced at the pilot site. Read More »
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SAIC Awarded Contract By Defense Health Services System
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) (NYSE: SAI) announced today it was awarded a prime contract by the Defense Health Services System (DHSS) to provide ongoing sustainment, operation and maintenance of the TRICARE Online (TOL) system and expand Blue Button capability in support of the Program Executive Office (PEO) Clinical Support Division. Read More »
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Samuel Shem Calls for Using VistA and the VA Model of Care to Solve the Physician Burnout Crisis
On November 1st Newsweek published an extraordinary Op-Ed by Samuel Shem titled Why Computerized Medical Records Are Bad for Both You and Your Doctor. In the article, Shem, pen name for the American psychiatrist and well-known author Stephen Joseph Bergman, presents evidence that poorly designed electronic medical records (EMRs) and over-regulation are to blame for the growing crisis of physician burnout and suicide. The rate of suicides among physicians has risen to a staggering number--three per day. Shem argues that there is a "better way," and that is shown by the electronic health record (EHR) system used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA's EHR is called VistA. Shem's view is supported by a large and increasing number of physicians and nurses. Read More »
- The Future Is Open
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Secretary McDonald Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun: VA is critical to medicine and vets
During preparation for my confirmation as secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), I was repeatedly asked, "Why doesn't VA just hand out vouchers allowing veterans to get care wherever they want?" For a department recovering from serious issues involving health care access and scheduling of appointments, that was a legitimate question. After nine weeks at VA, travel to 31 VA facilities in 15 cities, discussions with hundreds of veterans and VA clinicians, meetings with 75 Members of Congress, two hearings before the Senate and House Veterans' Affairs committees and dozens of meetings with Veterans Service Organizations and other stakeholders, I can answer that question. Veterans need VA, and many more Americans benefit from VA. Read More »
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Sharing Records Called Key To VA Health Care
...A July audit by the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Defense Department failed to make proper records transfers to the VA. In the Army, 77 percent of records transferred in 2013 were not timely and 28 percent were not complete, the audit said...
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Shinseki Wants A Budget For The VA
Veterans will still receive medical and hospital care no matter how long the federal government is shut down, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki told lawmakers, but funding for benefits and other programs may run out in November, threatening veterans’ financial health. Read More »
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Study: EHR-Related Safety Issues Linger Long After Implementation
Patient safety issues stemming from electronic health record systems continue long after implementation, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Modern Healthcare reports...
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