Where does “health care transformation” exist? Google finds us 70,600,000 hits on the subject. Good luck with that. Is it out there in parts? On the horizon: in accountable care organizations; patient-centered medical homes? In gene therapy and epigenetics? In HIPPA-compliant health information networks? In our National Prevention Strategy? In diet therapies approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for cardiovascular disease?
After a decade of conflict in Iraq, our troops have come home, producing the largest increase in the number of American veterans since the 1970s. After Vietnam, an America tired of war and consumed with political angst neglected its veterans. Fortunately, the veterans of today are receiving the homecoming they deserve. To make that homecoming complete, America needs to ensure that our returning warriors have access to one of the most important benefits they have earned: health care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated health care system in the country, has long employed many of the approaches Medicare is pushing on all hospitals to cut unnecessary readmissions. But new data show VA hospital patients are just as likely to end up back in a hospital bed as are patients at private hospitals.
While there is debate about the precise rate of prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in the population of service members returning from deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, few would disagree that the sheer number of first and repeat deployments has placed a high demand on the Department of Veteran Affairs and military mental health treatment systems. Compounding the challenge is the key role played by reservists and National Guardsmen in these wars.
Two years have passed since a Washington Post article revealed some instances of inadequate treatment of soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The resulting public outcry and concern for our nation’s veterans led to a number of investigations and inquiries on what should be done to support wounded service members.
