Transitional Care Analysis Paper

The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) has been tasked with providing support and benefits to Veterans after they have completed their service. However, many Veterans are reporting difficulty accessing care due to systematic barriers within the VA’s Veterans Health Administration (Oliver, 2007). Complex eligibility requirements, long wait lists and lack of providers are a few of the issues Veterans are faced with when trying to access health and mental health care. Additionally, studies indicate that veterans, predominantly those from the recent wars in Iran and Iraq, have disproportionately high amounts of mental illness (Shim & Rust, 2013). These same veterans are experiencing difficulty accessing mental health care due to issues around a backlog of healthcare eligibility applications and a shortage of mental health providers through the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which operates the Nation’s largest, integrated health care delivery system (APA, 2014). In 2014, at the request of the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) evaluated the merit of the allegations of mismanagement at the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) and the Health Eligibility Center (HEC).

In the past few years there has been increasing discussion about how to provide adequate care for the increasing number of veterasn who are eligible for care through the Veterans’ healthcare administration (VHA). There are concerns is that the VHA is not providing the level of access, efficiency, and quality of care that veterans expect. Lee & Begley, (2016) suggest access to care for the veteran population may be resulting in poor health outcomes. In response to these concerns, the Veterans ' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act (VACAA) of 2014, also known as the Veterans Choice Act, was created to improve Veterans’ healthcare. The VACAA proposed to do this by expanding the number of options veterans have for receiving healthcare, by providing access for healthcare at non-VA care centers as well as providing for an increase in staffing at VA facilities (U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2016).

The main research questions in this study are: 1) is veteran healthcare equal to private healthcare; 2) do veterans have to wait longer for treatment options; and 3) do veterans have limited treatment options? It is hypothesized that veterans receive inferior healthcare services compared to private healthcare and the community is unaware of the disparities.

Current funding for veteran healthcare care is low and insufficient because of the large number of veterans, who are being discharged from the military as the country transitions to a democratic President. According to Dr. Rachel Nardin in her article about veteran healthcare, “Soldiers get excellent acute care when injured on active duty, but as revelations of poor conditions for soldiers receiving ongoing outpatient care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center highlighted, service members often have trouble getting the care they need once active duty ends” (Nardin 1)

VA St. Louis Health Care System makes changes to provide exceptional health care to vets

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a health care system that offers programs to benefit veterans and their families. Benefits include, but are not limited compensation payments for disabilities or death related to military service, pensions, education, health care and rehabilitation. The Department of Veteran Affairs functions as the nation’s largest integrated health care system, with more than 1,700 hospitals, clinics, community living centers, domiciliary, readjustment counseling centers, and other facilities. The mission of the VA is to “care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan" by serving and honoring the men and women who are America 's veterans (The Department of Veteran Affairs, 2011). This mission statement is based off of President Lincoln 's promise to service members. For the addiction treatment program (ATP), which is part of the mental health division of the VA, their mission statement is to provide person centered and driven assessments, clinical programming, plan of care, treatment plan reviews, transition planning and outpatient and after service to promote the rehabilitation, recovery, health maintenance, quality of life and community integration goals identified by persons served (The Department of Veteran Affairs, 2011, p. 27).

This paper endeavors to take an in-depth look at the VA and access and analyze some of its programs and policies to judge their effectiveness. With any large organization, there will be issues maintaining the set principles. As each agency strives to operate day to day under the mission established by the federal government and the Pentagon they soon realize that being a civilian working in the VA means service to country as the y seek to administer care to our Vets.

Enhancing veteran care is the top priority for us all, providing opportunities to veterans enabling them to become actively involved with their healthcare will generate an enriching supportive foundation on every level of health care. Utilizing this “multi-disciplinary” structure encompuses and promotes active health care management that heighten their physical/mental well-being.

military who understand the difficulties of readjusting to civilian life after being conditioned into service. Although some have the support of family friends, it’s not always the case for those who undergo extended service for the United States. After serving a certain amount of time for the United States, it only seems fair that veterans should be able experience an easier transition and at least be provided with easier access to care for possible psychological trauma and other behavioral needs.

The care for our veteran service men and women has been inadequate since the founding of our nation. The intent of this section is to provide an over view on the history of the military and the policies that have affected our veterans. Additionally, I will address the gaps in current mental and healthcare policies affecting veterans today.

The veterans are vulnerable to a wide range of complications that are affiliated with life in combat or during their time in service. The healthcare is committed to focusing on the special needs of veterans and has come up with avenues of supporting as well as aiding them to cope with the challenges that might be associated with time in the service. Exposure and experiences are not only associated with adverse psychological implications but also the inability to fit and interact with normal society. Therefore, establishing nursing interventions that are aligned towards offering the special healthcare needs of the veterans is highly significant (Neal, 2016). The nature of the duty, experiences as well as memories contributes significantly in

Strategies have been developed for improving care transitions but existing research does not provide sufficient evidence supporting which methods are best. Because readmission rates are now

The Center for Studying Health Systems Change 2011 study reported that one-third of patients discharged from hospitals do not see a provider within 30 days of admission. An article by Huff (2015) demonstrated the need to have a discharge or transitional care coordinator who is responsible for coordinating discharge follow up appointment, call patient post-discharge to review health status and medication compliance and ensuring providers receive hospital summary in a timely manner. Huff cited a study from Oregon Health and Science University that found that readmission rates declined from 27% to 7.1 %, which was attributed to early transitional care coordinator involvement. This article also discussed the 7 key interventions to managing transitions of care which were medications, transitional care, patient and family education, information transfer, follow up care, provider ownership, and

Following legislation passed into law in 2008, veterans who have served in a combat theatre of operations are automatically eligible for enrollment in health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs for five years after separating from service. Under the current system those veterans must apply for VA health coverage themselves following separation from service. This process is complicated by a VA bureaucracy that is slow to enroll eligible veterans. In order to provide the best health care possible, a new policy of automatically enrolling eligible veterans in to the VA system should be implemented. This change would improve health outcomes, combat the trend in veteran suicides, and………

VHA is unlike any other healthcare organization in that we non-profit organization that is governed by the federal government, Congress and the public. With a primary focus on meeting the needs for all U.S. Veterans and their families, it is critical for VHA to solicit feedback from stakeholders across the enterprise to measure and monitor performance, service and care provided. We do this in many ways to include a Survey of Healthcare Experience of Patients (SHEP) survey that is sent to Veterans receiving