How does the VA measure up against other U.S. health care providers? To address this question, RAND researchers compared the medical records of VA patients with a national sample and evaluated how effectively health care is delivered to each group. Their findings:
- VA patients received about two-thirds of the care recommended by national standards, compared with about half in the national sample.
- Among chronic care patients, VA patients received about 70 percent of recommended care, compared with about 60 percent in the national sample.
- For preventive care, the difference was greater: VA patients received about 65 percent of recommended care, while patients in the national sample received 20 percent less.
- VA patients received consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.
- Quality of care for acute conditions -- a performance area the VA did not measure -- was similar for the two populations.
- The greatest differences between the VA and the national sample were for indicators where the VA was actively measuring performance and for indicators related to those on which performance was measured.
VA Delivers Higher Quality of Care
Using indicators from RAND's Quality Assessment Tools system, RAND researchers analyzed the medical records of 596 VA patients and 992 non-VA patients from across the country. The patients were randomly selected males aged 35 and older.
Based on 294 health indicators in 15 categories of care, they found that overall, VA patients were more likely than patients in the national sample to receive recommended care.
In particular, the VA patients received significantly better care for depression, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension.
The VA also performed consistently better across the spectrum of care, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. The only exception to the pattern of better care in VA facilities was care for acute conditions, for which the two samples were similar.
The above video is less than 30 minutes, and it touches on everything I've been saying for years now when it comes to VA healthcare and US healthcare at large ...
You want to help veterans? Then call your elected officials and tell them don't privatize the VA.
Murder.