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October 2022
This month I’d like to highlight a few key takeaways from Secretary McDonough’s recent testimony at the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs where he discussed Veterans access to care.
During the hearing, Secretary McDonough emphasized how VA is delivering more care to more Veterans than ever before. He also spoke to how VA is providing better health outcomes compared to the private sector thanks to our frontline staff who are serving more Veterans and beneficiaries with diverse needs.
The Secretary did confirm that processing times for community care referrals and scheduling appointments could be improved, and that the enduring impact of COVID-19—more appointments than before the pandemic, growing health care demands and staff shortages—are contributing to an upward trend in patient wait times.
To address these challenges, he outlined VA’s efforts to bolster staffing and recruitment, improve workflows and technologies, and boost support for VA clinicians and staff. He also mentioned updates we have made to the Access to Care website and possible future enhancements, such as adding Veteran experience information, details on timeliness within health care subspecialties, and the ability to view relevant medical center information.
I would encourage you to read Secretary McDonough’s testimony to learn more about VA’s current status and our priorities when it comes to health care access.
Miguel H. LaPuz, MD, MBA
Assistant Under Secretary for Health
for Integrated Veteran Care
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Be on the lookout for new Patient Record Flag functionalities in Consult Toolbox (CTB) 2.0.
Patient Record Flags (PRFs) are now accessible in the CTB screening and triage tool to capture and display behavioral health and high-risk suicide flags that have been manually entered.
The selection of “Yes” to the behavioral health and high-risk suicide flag question updates the administrative care coordination level from “Basic” to “Moderate” or higher, requiring clinical triage and nurse engagement, as indicated by community providers. By incorporating PRFs into Veteran scheduling, you can reduce risks to community care staff, providers and Veterans.
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A new reference guide is available to help VA staff correctly identify and report patient safety and quality events occurring in different community care settings.
The patient safety and quality reporting guide helps you:
- Determine if an event is “community care”
- Understand the different types of VA-provided home- and community-based services
- Access resources to support accurate safety and quality event reporting in different care settings
- Understand program eligibility and associated purchasing authorities for different care types, like skilled nursing care or residential rehabilitation.
The guide is intended to ensure safety and quality events are reported accurately and through the appropriate channels. This strengthens our ability to monitor quality of care data and implement improvements, leading to better experiences and health outcomes for Veterans.
The reference guide was developed by the IVC Community Care Quality and Patient Safety Team in collaboration with the Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care (GEC).
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It’s Here! The 2022-2023 flu season!
VA no-cost flu shots are available for eligible Veterans at VA medical centers and nearly 70,000 in-network retail pharmacies or in-network urgent care locations through April 30, 2023. Remind Veterans that getting a flu shot protects them, their family and their community. They can get vaccinated for COVID-19 at the same time they get a flu shot.
Encourage Veterans to use the VA locator to find a VA medical center, in-network urgent care or retail pharmacy near them to get their flu shot. Veterans should call ahead to confirm if the urgent care provider or retail pharmacy offers no-cost flu shot benefits and bring the billing information flyer.
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Support
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Training & Education
Course: Back to Basics: An Integrated Informatics & Analytics (IIA) Reporting Primer Series provides a concise set of modules to guide the learner through high-level topics within Power BI and the IIA process including exporting data, filtering and navigating the app. (TMS ID VA 4627622)
Course: Patient Safety and Quality Overview demonstrates how to report events, how events are investigated, and how important actions are made for VA staff, including patient safety managers, patient safety officers, and quality management. (TMS ID VA 4633885)
This course combines “Patient Safety Managers & Patient Safety Events” (VA 4491498) and “Optimizing Patient Safety” (VA 4491496) and provides updated content.
Course: Community Care Patient Safety and Quality Processes: How VHA is Advocating for Change delivers an overview of historical influences and recent efforts to improve patient safety and quality of care. (TMS ID VA 4568998)
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Support:
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Resources
Questions
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