VA Health Care: The Quality of Care Provided by Some VA Psychiatric Hospitals is Inadequate.

Abstract

In 1989, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) identified six primarily psychiatric hospitals in which 38 patient deaths may have occurred due to "likely" quality-of-care problems in the medical treatment these individuals received. Before this, in 1988, eight VA psychiatric hospitals, including three of the hospitals mentioned above, were cited in Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization's surveys as having a combined total of more than 1,000 deficiencies-many involving VA's inability to ensure that quality medical and psychiatric care were being furnished. At the request of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, GAO (1) examined various clinical indicators-both medical and psychiatric-performed in VA psychiatric hospitals to determine how quality assurance data are used to identify and resolve potential quality-of-care problems and (2) compared quality-of-care problems encountered by VA and private sector hospitals and the programs each has implemented to monitor and correct those problems. Pg 3. JMD

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADA290649

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Congress
  • Department Of Veterans Affairs
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Employment
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Infection Control
  • Medical Personnel
  • Mental Health
  • New York
  • Patient Care
  • Personnel Management
  • Surgery
  • Therapy
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Medicine
  • Psychology

Readers

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