Care at veterans' medical facilities is better than or equal to non-VA health care, studies published in two leading medical journals say, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs press release.
"Our goal at VA is to deliver world-class care to every Veteran, every time, and we will never settle for anything less,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said.
The Journal of General Internal Medicine and the Journal of the American College of Surgeons both published articles saying reviews of peer-reviewed medical concluded that VA health care is consistently on par with or better than non-VA health care.
The studies reviewed by the researchers assessed the quality, safety, accessibility, patient experience, and comparative cost/efficiency of VA. Out of the 26 studies that examined non-surgical care, 15 found that VA care was superior to non-VA care, and seven found that clinical quality outcomes were either equivalent or the results were mixed, the VA said. In surgical care, 11 of 13 studies found that VA care was on par with or superior to non-VA care, the VA said.
"This systematic review compares care provided in VA and non-VA settings, and includes published studies from 2015 to 2023, updating 2 prior systematic reviews on this topic," the Journal of General Medicine article said of the non-surgical-care study.
In surgical care, the Journal of the American College of Surgeons article said, "This review synthesizes recent evidence comparing surgical care between VA and non-VA delivered care across the domains of quality and safety, access, patient experience, and comparative cost/efficiency (2015-2021)."
More veterans are receiving care from VA right now than at any other time in the history of the country and nearly 90% of veterans who receive care from VA believe VA will meet their needs, the VA said in the release.
The current review was the third conducted for the VA. "Each of these systematic reviews has come to the same overarching conclusion: on average, VA care is better than or comparable to non-VA care in the domains of clinical quality and safety," the VA said.
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles and the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System in California carried out the new review.
