Outsourcing veterans for long term care: comparison of community and state veterans' nursing homes.
ABSTRACT This study compares the characteristics of state veterans' nursing homes and community nursing homes with VA per-diem residentes between 1999-2002. A structure, process, and outcome model was used to examine whether there was any difference in the multi-dimensional quality measures among the three types of community...

Yekeen A. Aderibigbe.
Yekeen A. Aderibigbe, MD, MBA, CPE, is chief of psychiatry service at the VA Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System in Biloxi, Miss. Prior to this appointment, Aderibigbe served as clinical director at West Central Georgia Regional Hospital. Aderibigbe completed his medical degree at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria,...

Stanford University Researchers: Use of AIDS Test Can Prolong Life.
HEALTH AND BEAUTY CLOSE-UP-29 September 2008-Stanford University Researchers: Use of AIDS Test Can Prolong Life(C)2008 - CloseUpMedia - newsdesk@closeupmedia.com A simple test given to HIV/AIDS patients in southern Africa could extend their lives by nearly a year and save health-care costs at the same time, according to...

Is thirty-day hospital mortality really lower for black veterans compared with white veterans?
In contrast to an extensive literature documenting worse health outcomes among blacks than whites throughout the health care system (Smedley, Stith, and Nelson 2002), a number of studies of veterans hospitalized in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system have found either that blacks have better outcomes than whites...

Rare adverse medical events in VA inpatient care: reliability limits to using patient safety indicators as performance measures.
Patient safety has become an issue of focal interest in the evaluation of health care quality (Kohn, Corrigan, and Donaldson 1999). Recently the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ.) has developed a comprehensive set of standardized patient safety measures, derived from hospital discharge data, which potentially might...

Delayed access to health care and mortality.
Ensuring timely access to health care is a major policy concern in the United States. Delayed access has been found to increase the use of emergency rooms for nonurgent conditions (Shesser et al. 1991; Cunningham et al. 1995) and to decrease patient satisfaction (United States Government Accounting Office [U.S....

VA Rolls Out FY 2008 Budget Even as FY 2007 Still Remains in Limbo.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Monday, February 5, 2007, the Administration released its budget request for the federal government, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Randy L. Pleva, Sr., national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), welcomed the proposed increase with caution. He stated, "Although the...

Soldiers facing mental illness upon return.
High rates of mental illness are being diagnosed among U.S military personnel returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. A study in the March 12 Archives of Internal Medicine analyzed mental health diagnoses and psychosocial problems among U.S. veterans treated at Veterans Administration health care facilities between Sept....

Veterans affairs health system and mental health treatment retention among patients with serious mental illness: evaluating accessibility and availability barriers.
Access to health services may be understood in terms of distinct dimensions of the fit between characteristics of potential clients and those of providers (Penchansky and Thomas 1981). The influence of specific dimensions of access may be examined with regard to contact with providers, volume of services, and continuity...

$40 million vision rehabilitation system to be established by VA.
Unprecedented growth in the need for rehabilitation services for U.S. veterans and active duty military personnel who are blind or have low vision has resulted in the need for an expanded vision rehabilitation workforce in the facilities operated by the U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Secretary of Veterans Affairs...