The VA healthcare system currently is grappling with about 50,000 vacancies, mostly among doctors, nurses, social workers and physician aides. In addition, the turnover rate among nurses is the highest the department has experienced since 2005.
Veterans Receiving VA Emergency Care Have Lower 30-Day Mortality
Long-standing concerns over the difficulties navigating VA’s large and complex healthcare system and the lack of choice veterans have about where to obtain their care have led to reforms in recent years that enable veterans to opt to obtain care in the private sector.
Panel Recommends Closing Some VAMCs, More Emphasis on Outpatient Care
After months of anticipation and years of research, VA has released its Asset and Infrastructure Report (AIR), laying out recommendations for how VA should evolve its physical footprint in the coming decades.
Why Do Cataract, TKA Surgeries Often Cost More at VA vs. Outside Care?
New study raises questions about which veterans requiring cataract and total knee replacement surgeries received community care, as opposed to the cases kept within the VA system.
National Guard Pandemic Response Proves Motto ‘Always Ready, Always There’
For more than two years, the National Guard has risen to the challenges posed by COVID-19 as the pandemic has disrupted lives, supply chains, health care, education and more.
McDonough Denies That Veterans Are Improperly Refused Community Care
Media reports that veterans were being denied community care for financial reasons once again raised questions about how the Mission Act is being administered.
How one VAMC Pharmacy Implemented Gravimetric IV Workflow Technology
For years, the Institute of Safe Medical Practices and other safety groups have been staunch advocates of technology solutions such as gravimetric verification of drug and diluent volumes and have strongly encouraged their implementation to augment manual processes and provide additional safeguards during sterile compounding.
VA Secretary Warns of Hard Conversations Ahead on Agency Resources
VA Secretary Denis McDonough vowed to legislators that the agency will use the lessons it learned during COVID-19 to make the agency stronger going forward.
DoD Will Provide Medical Workers to Help Civilian Hospitals Fight Omicron
In response to the surge of COVID-19 cases related to the omicron variant, President Joe Biden said that an additional 1,000 military medical personnel would be available to aid civilian hospitals in the United States by early this year.
Dinardo Urges VA Physicians to Consider All Possibilities With Diagnoses
A clinician’s mind leaps to a diagnosis. It matches the symptoms; it wouldn’t be that unusual for a patient of that age; it seems the most likely solution to the answers that both veteran and physician are seeking.
Senator Continues Push to Create More Joint DoD/VA Healthcare Facilities
The James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Chicago is the only joint DoD/VA healthcare facility in operation—a partnership between VA and the Navy. With a gentle push from Congress, that might change in the not-too-distant future.
Kligler Helps Move VA Away From Only Care of Illnesses to Whole Health
For more than a decade, VA has been shifting to a patient-centered model of care, one where providers work together to get a fuller picture of a patient’s life and health.
BCG Vaccine Doesn’t Protect Against COVID-19 Infection, Severity
At an earlier point in the COVID-19 pandemic, hopes were raised that the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) vaccine, which stimulates innate immunity, could provide protection against SARS-CoV-2.
Military Surgeon Readiness Continues to Decline as Patient Caseloads Drop
Military surgeon readiness continues to decrease because of declining workload, and a new study suggested that patient flow care at the MHS will have to dramatically change to reverse the situation.
LA VAMC Researcher Works to Create Racial, Ethnic, Gender Equity in Healthcare
When Donna Washington, MD, MPH, moved to Los Angeles for a health services fellowship at UCLA following her residency, she imagined that she would end up working in a county or public health system.
AMA, Other Physician Groups Strongly Oppose New VA Standards of Practice
Partly spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the VA late last year released an interim final rule clarifying that VA nurses and other healthcare professionals can deliver services in a state other than their state of licensure, registration or certification.
VA Studies Seek to Find Balance in Antibiotic Duration for Male UTI Treatment
Urinary tract infection is one of the diagnoses for which antibiotics are most commonly used. So, a study determining that shorter duration treatment works as well as a longer course of antibiotics can have an outsized effect on reducing overuse of antimicrobials.
Intensive Glycemic Control Not Eye-Protective in Advanced Diabetes
Intensive glycemic control (INT) does not appear to have a protective effect when it comes to required eye procedures in patients with advanced diabetes.
Legislators Question VA’s Significantly Increased Budget Request
In its FY 2022 budget proposal, VA is asking Congress to provide the department with a 10% increase over 2021 funding levels.
OIG Finds That VA’s Computer Systems Remain Vulnerable to Cyberattacks
Although no data was stolen from VA’s computer systems during the 2020’s SolarWinds hack, cybersecurity remains a long-standing material weakness for the VA, agency overseers pointed out.
Problems With DoD-to-VA Transition Program Intensified by Pandemic
Transitioning from active duty military service to civilian life is difficult at the best of times. The pandemic added a host of new challenges, highlighted existing problems with the transitioning process and widened the cracks through which those veterans who are most in need of support are in danger of falling.
Few Women Veterans Receive Pre-Pregnancy Counseling
Women veterans aren’t routinely being queried about their intentions related to pregnancy, making it more difficult to optimize family planning care.
COVID-19 Pandemic Put Spotlight on VA’s Critical Supply Chain Problems
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored VA’s lack of a comprehensive supply chain management program, and agency officials once again defended their progress before Congress.
Many Female VA Patients Appear to Have Undiagnosed OSA
Too many women veterans remained undiagnosed with sleep apnea, even if they were at high risk of adverse outcomes, according to a new study.
Infrastructure Lack Increases Health Risks of Native Americans
The COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately affected Native Americans, has revealed a critical need for investments in those communities, according to trial advocates and the Indian Health Service (IHS).
Mortality Rate Lower for Kidney Transplant Patients at VHA Than Outside Care
Mortality rates are lower for veterans who receive all of their post-kidney transplant care within the VHA than those who receive care outside the VA through Medicare coverage, according to a recent study.
VA Now Vaccinating All Veterans, Not Just VHA Enrollees
The VA is smoothing the way for all U.S. veterans, their spouses and caregivers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Lawmakers Seek to Expand VA Coverage Related to Fertility Issues
Veterans who have service-connected infertility issues should have access to the full range of fertility services science now available, especially in vitro fertilization, without the constraints imposed by antiquated and sometimes nonsensical regulations, legislators and veterans’ advocates argued last month.
Servicemembers Affected by Toxic Exposures Need More Specialized Healthcare
Government medical agencies need to view toxic exposure as a high-priority issue deserving of specialized centers for research and monitoring.
Chief Medical Recruiters Look for Commitment to the VA’s Mission
Even VA’s harshest critics regularly admit that VA provides world-class care to its veterans and that VA facilities are staffed by some of the most compassionate, hardest-working providers in any healthcare system in the country.
