Quality of care in Veterans Health Administration hospitals: Helping Veterans decide “Should I stay, or should I go?”

Abstract: In the 1990s, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) underwent a significant transformation to improve care quality, accessibility, and patient-centeredness. With recent legislative changes expanding Veterans' options for receiving care outside the VHA, it has become increasingly important to evaluate and compare the quality of VHA and non-VHA healthcare. Bagshaw et al. utilize the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Overall Star Rating System to compare VHA hospitals to non-VHA facilities. Their findings indicate that VHA hospitals are more likely to receive higher star ratings and demonstrate greater data transparency. These results offer a new, patient-accessible framework for evaluating care quality and support previous studies suggesting VHA care is comparable or superior to non-VHA alternatives. As Veterans gain more freedom in choosing their healthcare providers, this evidence is essential for informed decision-making, particularly amid rising costs and concerns about quality variation in community care.

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