scholarly journals Group Telehealth Interventions Fostering Social Connection Among Older Veterans and Their Families

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 206-206
Author(s):  
Michelle Mlinac ◽  
Rachel Weiskittle
Keyword(s):  
Group Treatment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Treatment Manual ◽  
Social Connection ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Provider Surveys

Abstract During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual and telephone visits rapidly replaced most in-person care within the Veterans Health Administration (VA) to reduce virus spread. To address the emerging mental health needs of older Veterans (e.g., isolation, loneliness), we developed an 8-week group treatment manual, deliverable over telephone or videoconference, to foster social connection and address pandemic anxieties. The manual was disseminated in March 2020 as a rapid response to emergent COVID-19 pandemic realities, during which many locations in the United States called for immediate self-quarantine measures for unknown durations. This talk will present the user-centered design of the manual, preliminary feasibility and acceptability findings from provider surveys, and introduce versions of the manual targeting specific populations (e.g., caregivers, Spanish speakers) currently in development or in pilot testing.

scholarly journals Purchasing Quality Nursing Home Care in the Veterans Health Administration

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Orna Intrator ◽  
Edward Alan Miller ◽  
Portia Y Cornell ◽  
Cari Levy ◽  
Christopher W Halladay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Veterans Affairs ◽  
Nursing Home Care ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Star Rating ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Veterans Affairs Medical Centers ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Background and Objectives U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs) contract with nursing homes (NHs) in their community to serve Veterans. This study compares the characteristics and performance of Veterans Affairs (VA)-paid and non-VA-paid NHs both nationally and within local VAMC markets. Research Design and Methods VA-paid NHs were identified, characterized, and linked to VAMC markets using data drawn from VA administrative files. NHs in the United States in December 2015 were eligible for the analysis, including. 1,307 VA-paid NHs and 14,253 non-VA-paid NHs with NH Compare measures in 128 VAMC markets with any VA-paid NHs. Measurements were derived from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) five-star rating system, NH Compare. Results VA-paid NHs had more beds, residents per day, and were more likely to be for-profit relative to non-VA-paid NHs. Nationally, the average CMS NH Compare star rating was slightly lower among VA-paid NHs than non-VA-paid NHs (3.05 vs. 3.21, p = .04). This difference was seen in all 3 domains: inspection (3.11 vs. 3.23, p < .001), quality (2.68 vs. 2.83, p < .001), and total nurse staffing (3.36 vs. 3.42, p < .10). There was wide variability across VAMC markets in the ratio of average star rating of VA-paid and non-VA-paid NHs (mean ratio = 0.93, interquartile range = 0.78–1.08). Discussion and Implications With increased community NH use expected following the implementation of the MISSION Act, comparison of the quality of purchased services to other available services becomes critical for ensuring quality, including for NH care. Methods presented in this article can be used to examine the quality of purchased care following the MISSION Act implementation. In particular, dashboards such as that for VA-paid NHs that compare to similar non-VA-paid NHs can provide useful information to quality improvement efforts.

Transformation of the US Veterans Health Administration

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan B. Perlin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Veterans Health Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Veterans Affairs ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Department Of Veterans Affairs ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
The Us

Ten years ago, it would have been hard to imagine the publication of an issue of a scholarly journal dedicated to applying lessons from the transformation of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Health System to the renewal of other countries' national health systems. Yet, with the recent publication of a dedicated edition of the Canadian journal Healthcare Papers (2005), this actually happened. Veterans Affairs health care also has been similarly lauded this past year in the lay press, being described as ‘the best care anywhere’ in the Washington Monthly, and described as ‘top-notch healthcare’ in US News and World Report's annual health care issue enumerating the ‘Top 100 Hospitals’ in the United States (Longman, 2005; Gearon, 2005).

Enhancing Regulatory Decision Making for Postmarket Drug Safety

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishal Ahuja ◽  
Carlos A. Alvarez ◽  
John R. Birge ◽  
Chad Syverson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Operations Management ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pharmaceutical Products ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Regulatory Decision ◽  
Increased Risk

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the approval and safe public use of pharmaceutical products in the United States. The FDA uses postmarket surveillance systems to monitor drugs already on the market; a drug found to be associated with an increased risk of adverse events (ADEs) is subject to a recall or a warning. A flawed postmarket decision-making process can have unintended consequences for patients, create uncertainty among providers and affect their prescribing practices, and subject the FDA to unfavorable public scrutiny. The FDA’s current pharmacovigilance process suffers from several shortcomings (e.g., a high underreporting rate), often resulting in incorrect or untimely decisions. Thus, there is a need for robust, data-driven approaches to support and enhance regulatory decision making in the context of postmarket pharmacovigilance. We propose such an approach that has several appealing features—it employs large, reliable, and relevant longitudinal databases; it uses methods firmly established in literature; and it addresses selection bias and endogeneity concerns. Our approach can be used to both (i) independently validate existing safety concerns relating to a drug, such as those emanating from existing surveillance systems, and (ii) perform a holistic safety assessment by evaluating a drug’s association with other ADEs to which the users may be susceptible. We illustrate the utility of our approach by applying it retrospectively to a highly publicized FDA black box warning (BBW) for rosiglitazone, a diabetes drug. Using comprehensive data from the Veterans Health Administration on more than 320,000 diabetes patients over an eight-year period, we find that the drug was not associated with the two ADEs that led to the BBW, a conclusion that the FDA evidently reached, as it retracted the warning six years after issuing it. We demonstrate the generalizability of our approach by retroactively evaluating two additional warnings, those related to statins and atenolol, which we found to be valid. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.

scholarly journals Implementation evaluation of academic detailing on naloxone prescribing trends at the United States Veterans Health Administration

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1055-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Bounthavong ◽  
Emily Beth Devine ◽  
Melissa L. D. Christopher ◽  
Michael A. Harvey ◽  
David L. Veenstra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Veterans Health Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Academic Detailing ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Implementation Evaluation ◽  
Prescribing Trends

Cataract surgery practice patterns in the United States Veterans Health Administration

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul B. Greenberg ◽  
Annika Havnaer ◽  
Thomas A. Oetting ◽  
Francisco J. Garcia-Ferrer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cataract Surgery ◽  
Practice Patterns ◽  
Veterans Health Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Health Administration

scholarly journals PREVALENCE AND PREDICTORS OF STATIN USE IN LONG-STAY NURSING HOME RESIDENTS WITH LIFE-LIMITING ILLNESSES

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S861-S861
Author(s):  
Deborah S Mack ◽  
Kate L Lapane
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Nursing Home ◽  
Nursing Home Residents ◽  
The United States ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Home Setting ◽  
Palliative Care Consultation ◽  
Care Consultation ◽  
Statin Use

Abstract Statins are one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the United States. While statin use has been studied extensively in the general population, national data on statin use in US nursing homes do not exist. This study estimated the point prevalence of statin use on September 1, 2016 and identified predictors of statin use in nursing home residents with life limiting illness. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using national MDS 3.0 data linked to Medicare claims. We identified 424,312 long-stay residents with life limiting illnesses defined as a palliative care consultation (ICD-10 Z51.5), prognosis <6 months on MDS, the Veterans Health Administration palliative care index (PCI), or a diagnosis of a serious illness (e.g., cancer, stroke, heart failure, etc.). Poisson models accounted for clustering of residents within facilities. Overall, 34% were on statins which varied by age (65-75 years: 44.1%; >75 years: 31.5%). The strongest positive predictor of statin use was hyperlipidemia, while coronary artery disease and stroke were only marginally predictive across age. The strongest negative predictors were a palliative care consultation or a prognosis <6 months, while PCI was not strongly associated with use. A substantial proportion of long stay nursing home residents with life limiting illnesses continue statin therapy despite evidence of net harm. Efforts to deprescribe statins in the nursing home setting may be warranted. These findings can be used to help identify and target missed opportunities to reduce the therapeutic burden and improve end-of-life care for the US nursing home population.

scholarly journals 1231. Legionella Variability From Routine Environmental Testing Across All Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Medical Facilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S443-S443
Author(s):  
Chetan Jinadatha ◽  
John David Coppin ◽  
Shantini D Gamage ◽  
Stephen Kralovic ◽  
Gary Roselle
Keyword(s):  
Water Samples ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
The United States ◽  
Seasonal Effect ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Prevention Policy ◽  
Environmental Testing ◽  
Medical Facilities

Abstract Background VHA Legionella prevention policy requires quarterly testing of potable water samples, for its 170 medical facilities (“stations”) distributed across the United States. We modeled the variability in Legionella positivity rates by location structure and by time to understand Legionella prevalence and distribution across VHA nationwide. Our goal was to understand when, where and why variations in Legionella positivity happens across VHA facilities. Methods Data from quarterly water samples from sinks and showers from 2015 through 2017 and for which complete information was reported were used for the model. A multi-level Bayesian logistic regression model was run in R version 3.5.1. The hierarchical location group levels consisted of room nested within floor, within building, within station, within region. The time group-level effects included quarter nested within year. Variabilities within groups were estimated as standard deviation (SD) on the log-odds scale. Results Among 138,553 samples, there was little seasonal effect (SD: 0.32) in Legionella positivity based on the quarter in which they were sampled. The largest variability in Legionella positivity occurred at the station level (SD: 2.38), with substantial variation at the building level also (SD: 1.85). The 5% of stations most likely to be positive for Legionella represented only 7.5% of total samples but accounted for 39.7% of all positive samples. The 5% of stations least likely to be positive for Legionella represented 10.4% of total samples, but only had 2 positive samples. Conclusion Buildings with the highest probability for Legionella positivity are clustered together within stations. We saw no major seasonal variations in Legionella positivity across facilities. We were able to better predict stations with higher positivity as well as lower overall positivity for Legionella water sampling. The observed dominant station-level effects could be due to overarching influences such as a single water source and suggests approaches at this level can impact Legionella control. These results demonstrate a mechanism for understanding the distribution and probability of Legionella and can inform prevention practices and future policy. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

scholarly journals Testing practices and incidence of chlamydial and gonococcal infection in the Veterans Health Administration, 2009-2019

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren A Beste ◽  
Marissa M Maier ◽  
Joleen Borgerding ◽  
Elliott Lowy ◽  
Ronald G Hauser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Groups ◽  
Veterans Health Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Hiv Status ◽  
Demographic Group ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
Testing Practices

Abstract Background Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae cases reached a record high in the United States in 2018. Although active duty military servicemembers have high rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea infection, trends in chlamydia and gonorrhea in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system have not been previously described, including among patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and young women. Methods We identified all Veterans in VHA care from 2009-2019. Tests and cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea were defined based on lab results in the electronic health record. Chlamydia and gonorrhea incidence rates were calculated each year by demographic group and HIV status. Results In 2019, testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea occurred in 2.3% of patients, 22.6% of women ages 18-24, and 34.1% of persons with HIV. 2019 incidence of chlamydia and gonorrhea was 100.8 and 56.3 cases per 100,000 VHA users, an increase of 267% and 294%, respectively, since 2009. Veterans aged <34 years accounted for 9.5% of the VHA population but 66.9% of chlamydia and 42.9% of gonorrhea cases. Chlamydia and gonorrhea incidence rates in persons with HIV were 1,432 and 1,687 per 100,000, respectively. Conclusions The incidence of chlamydia and gonorrhea rose dramatically from 2009-2019. Among tested persons, those with HIV had a 15.2-fold higher unadjusted incidence of chlamydia and 34.9-fold higher unadjusted incidence of gonorrhea compared to those without HIV. VHA-wide adherence to chlamydia and gonorrhea testing in high-risk groups merits improvement.

scholarly journals 1164. County-Level Geographic Distribution of Extended-Spectrum Cephalosporin-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae Across Outpatient Settings of the Veterans Health Administration, 2000–2017

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S350-S351
Author(s):  
Michihiko Goto ◽  
Rajeshwari Nair ◽  
Daniel Livorsi ◽  
Marin Schweizer ◽  
Michael Ohl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Veterans Health Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
County Level ◽  
Veterans Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Geographic Variability ◽  
Extended Spectrum ◽  
Outpatient Settings

Abstract Background Extended-spectrum cephalosporin resistance (ESCR) among Enterobacteriaceae has emerged globally over the last two decades, with increased prevalence in the community. Data from European countries and healthcare-associated isolates in the United States have demonstrated substantial geographic variability in the prevalence of ESCR, but community-onset isolates in the United States have been less studied. We aimed to describe geographic distribution and spread of ESCR among outpatient settings across the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) over 18 years. Methods We analyzed a retrospective cohort of all patients who had any positive clinical culture specimen for ESCR Enterobacteriaceae collected in an outpatient setting; ESCR was defined by phenotypic nonsusceptibility to at least one extended-spectrum cephalosporin agent or detection of an extended-spectrum β-lactamase. Patient-level data were grouped by county of residence, and the total number of unique patients who received care within VHA for each county was used as a denominator. We aggregated data by time terciles (2000–2005, 2006–2011, and 2012–2017), and overall and county-level incidence rates were calculated as the number of unique patients in each year with ESCR Enterobacteriaceae per person-year. Results During the study period, there were 1,980,095 positive cultures for Enterobacteriaceae from 870,797 unique patients across outpatient settings of VHA, from a total of 107,404,504 person-years. Among those, 136,185 cultures (6.9%) from 75,500 unique patients (8.7%) were ESCR. The overall incidence rate was 9.0 cases per 10,000 person-years, which increased from 6.3 per 10,000 person-years in 2000 to 14.6 per 10,000 person-years in 2017. County-level incidence rates ranged widely but increased overall (interquartile range [IQR] in 2000–2005: 0–6.7; 2006–2011: 0–9.1; 2012–2017: 3.1–14.3 per 10,000 person-years), with some geographic clustering (figure). Conclusion This study demonstrates that there has been geographic variation both in incidence rates and trends of ESCR Enterobacteriaceae in outpatient settings of VHA, which suggests the importance of tailoring local antibiotic-prescribing guidelines incorporating geographic variability in epidemiology. Disclosures M. Ohl, Gilead Sciences, Inc.: Grant Investigator, Research grant.

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