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Spring 2024
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ACCENT is a nationwide network of VA researchers and operations partners, fostering collaboration and knowledge diffusion in the areas of Access and Community Care among VA investigators, VA Operational Partners, VISN and VA facility leadership, and VA Health Systems Research to support and inform national priorities for achieving high-quality and timely access to care. ACCENT extends the work initiated by the Community Care Research Evaluation and Knowledge (CREEK) Center and the Veterans Access Research Consortium (VARC).
View the recording of the ACCENT CORE CIDER Cyberseminar (held February 12, 2024) Introducing the Access and Community Care Engagement Network Team (ACCENT)
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Interested in receiving the quarterly ACCENT CORE newsletter? Email VHAACCENTCORE@va.gov
New research published or presented at a conference? Please let us know so we can share it with the community in our next newsletter. Email VHAACCENTCORE@va.gov
Email accent.data@va.gov if you have questions for the ACCENT data team.
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Visit our New Website!
Check out the new ACCENT website, where you will find funded projects, recently published papers, minutes from monthly calls with the VA Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) information about using community care data captured in the Consolidated Data Set and Program Integrity Tool, and information about current access- and community care-related programs and projects.
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ACCENT Veteran and Caregiver Engagement Panel Updates
Are you a researcher or someone interested in working to improve access to VA and Community Care? Consider incorporating feedback from those who will be affected by your research. ACCENT is launching a Veteran and Caregiver Engagement Panel (VCEP) as an opportunity for access and community care researchers to integrate Veterans’ and Caregivers’ perspectives into the research design, methods, and dissemination of your research. VCEP has already recruited a diverse cohort of Veterans for the group. They are planning to hold their first VCEP panel meeting in October 2024.
Contact Kenda.Steffensmeier@va.gov to schedule a time to meet with the ACCENT VCEP!
NEWS FROM OPERATIONAL PARTNERS
Are you or your team looking for a letter of support for a new project submission or grant proposal? Email kristin.mattocks@va.gov with ACCENT CORE in the subject line.
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This updated road network updates the previous one (available in VINCI 2.0) that was published in 2010. The updated data represents roads as they were in 2022. VINCI 3.0 now provides an updated road network dataset for use within ArcGIS Pro (GIS software). When used with ArcGIS Pro’s Network Analyst extension, this updated road network dataset allows for calculating road-based distances and durations between origins and destinations.
While the PSSG tables within CDW provide an authoritative calculation for drive distances and times from Veteran homes to the closest VA facilities, there may be reasons for calculating distances to and from non-VA destinations.
Examples include the distance from Veteran homes to: pharmacies, community care clinic locations, private medical practices, or to other kinds of locations such as supermarkets, libraries, and shelters.
In addition, Network Analyst can consume the new road network to create service area travel bands around VA and non-VA facilities.
How to Access the New Road Network Data
This information is available here.
If you have questions, please email accent.data@va.gov
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Community Obstetrical Care Quality for Veterans
This study utilizes an existing cohort of Veterans to examine quality of obstetrical care received in delivery hospitals, measured by the Joint Commission perinatal care metrics. Preliminary findings indicate that Veterans deliver at hospitals with low quality ratings, particularly for cesarean section and exclusive breastfeeding rates. These findings, and the methods of identifying hospital quality, will inform future work in examining quality of care for Veterans when receiving healthcare in the community.
For inquiries, contact: Aimee Kroll-Desrosiers, PhD, Research Health Scientist, VA Central Western Massachusetts, aimee.kroll-desrosiers@va.gov
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Making it Easier to Choose VA: Veteran Preferences for In-Person Community Care vs. VA Virtual Care
The authors found that 44% of the 717 Veterans surveyed who had >1 VA in-person visit, >1 VA video visit and >1 Community Care (CC) in-person visit during FY22, reported that they had no preference (24%) or would prefer a VA video visit (20%) over another CC in-person visit if they needed care for the same medical issue in the future. The most frequently endorsed reasons for preferring a VA video visit included convenience, avoidance of infection, belief that the quality of VA care was equal to or better than CC and more timely appointments. Two factors were significant predictors of preferring a future VA video visit over a repeat CC in-person visit in a multivariate logistic regression model: (1) having a prior negative CC referral and authorization experience and (2) having a prior positive VA video visit experience.
Findings suggest that continued support for VA providers and patients in their video training and device access to promote positive video visit experiences could incline many Veterans to accept VA video care as an alternative to CC.
Study findings were first presented to the VA IVC Meeting on February 2, 2024 and then at the VA Under Secretary for Health meeting on April 29, 2024.
For inquiries, contact: Lynn Garvin, PhD, MBA, Research Health Scientist, VA Boston, lynn.garvin@va.gov
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Asfaw DA, Price ME, Carvalho KM, Pizer SD, Garrido MM. The effects of the Veterans Health Administration’s Referral Coordination Initiative on referral patterns and waiting times for specialty care. Health Serv Res. 2024;59(3). 1111/1475-6773.14303
Cotton JL, Netsanet A, Suarez-Pierre A, et al. Evaluation of Veteran community care outcomes after coronary artery bypass grafting: a retrospective pilot cohort. J Cardiothorac Surg. 2024;19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13019-024-02644-8
Golden SE, Lafferty M, Tyzik A, et al. A qualitative study of VA entrants’ experiences discussing community care with Veterans. SAGE Open. 2023;13(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231204666
Govier DJ, Gilbert TA, Jacob RL, et al. Prevalence and correlates of VA-purchased community care use among post-9/11-era veterans with traumatic brain injury. J Head Trauma Rehabil. 2024;39(3):207-217. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33976079
Lafferty M, Govier DJ, Golden SE, Disher NG, Hynes DM, Slatore CG. VA-delivered or VA-purchased care: Important factors for veterans navigating care decisions. J Gen Intern Med. 2023;38(7):1647-1654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-023-08128-0
Palani S, Garrido MM, Tenso K, Pizer SD. Community care emergency room use and specialty care leakage from Veterans Health Administration hospitals. Acad Emerg Med. 2023;30(4):379-387. 1111/acem.14667
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Ramalingam NS, Barnes C, Patzel M, Kenzie ES, Ono SS, Davis MM. “It’s like finding your way through the labyrinth”: A qualitative study of Veterans’ experiences accessing healthcare. J Gen Intern Med. 2024;39(4):596-602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-023-08442-7
Rosen AK, Beilstein-Wedel E, Chan J,
et al. Standardizing patient safety event reporting between care delivered or purchased by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2024;50(4):247-259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjq.2023.12.001
Weeda ER, Ward R, Gebregziabher M, Axon RN, Taber DJ. Medication safety events after acute myocardial infarction among veterans treated at VA versus non-VA hospitals. Med Care. 2024;62(2):72-78. DOI: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001935
Yoon J. Reexamining differences between Black and White Veterans in hospital mortality and other outcomes in Veterans Affairs and other hospitals. Med Care. 2024;62(4):243-249.https://doi.org/10.1097/MLR.0000000000001979
Yoon J, Phibbs CS, Ong MK, et al. Outcomes of veterans treated in Veterans Affairs hospitals vs non–Veterans Affairs hospitals. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(12):e2345898. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.45898.
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