Bedford VA Medical Center, Massachusetts
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The Best Care Anywhere…
“Where can you find the highest quality health care in the U.S.? There isn't one single answer, but believe it or not, many studies and independent experts point to the Veterans Health Administration as among the best.” So begins a June 2, 2010, article on MarketWatch, the Dow Jones online daily financial news report. The article quotes Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director of Rand Health, a division of the Rand Corp., in Santa Monica, Calif., who co-authored a comparative study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2004 that found the VA outperformed its community health-care counterparts by 20 percentage points in preventive care. It also performed significantly better on chronic disease care and in overall quality. "You're much better off in the VA than in a lot of the rest of the U.S. health-care system," she said. "You've got a fighting chance there's going to be some organized, thoughtful, evidence-based response to dealing effectively with the health problem that somebody brings to them." The article cites similar reports from other health care experts who focus on VA’s team practice concept, electronic patient records systems, mail-out pharmacy program and quality-improvement initiatives. It also covers challenges VA faces in meeting the needs of a new generation of combat Veterans.
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