VA Health Care Quality: VA Should Improve the Information It Publicly Reports on the Quality of Care at Its Medical Facilities
Abstract
To help veterans make informed choices about their care, the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 (Choice Act) directs VA to publicly report applicable health care quality measures for its medical facilities on HHSs Hospital Compare website and on VAs own website. The Choice Act also contains provisions for GAO to review the health care quality measures VA publicly reports. In this report, GAO 1) describes the quality measures VA reports on Hospital Compare and its own website; 2) evaluates VA's reporting of quality measures on its website; and 3) examines the extent to which VA has assessed the accuracy of the quality measures it publicly reports. GAO reviewed the quality measures VA publicly reports, reviewed studies and interviewed VA officials about the accuracy and completeness of the clinical information used to calculate the measures, and assessed the presentation and relevance of VA's information on quality of care using criteria identified in previous GAO work to evaluate health care websites. GAO recommends that VA 1) report a broader range of health care quality measures in an accessible and understandable way on its website and 2) conduct a systematic assessment of the patient clinical information across VAMCs to ensure its accuracy and completeness. VA concurred with GAO's first recommendation and concurred in principle with the second recommendation, and described steps to implement the recommendations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1177872
Entities
People
- Dee Abasute
- Eric M Peterson
- Jacquelyn Hamilton
- Krister Friday
- Randall B. Williamson
- Rashmi Agarwal
- Vikki Porter
- Wati Kadzai
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office