The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) program
There are various reasons healthcare programs are created with some meant to benefit the public while some are meant to benefit healthcare workers. This is because some programs are used for education purposes while others are used as prevention strategies (McQueen, Mittman & Demakis 2004). As with any other program, compliance and continuous assessment of this program is crucial to identify noncompliance and identify any areas that might need improvement. This paper intends to evaluate The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) program.
Healthcare Program/Policy Evaluation: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) program.
Describe the healthcare program or policy outcomes
VHA is an integrated healthcare system in the USA that provides extraordinary health care services to improve the health and wellbeing of over 9 million veterans. VHA provides a wide range of medical services to veterans enrolled to the VA health care program various VHA facilities or providers contracted with VHA (McQueen, Mittman & Demakis 2004).
How was the success of the program or policy measured?
The success of VHA is measured from the clients’ points of view. In this case, the clients are veterans who enroll for the program. The program administration uses four dimension to evaluate each of its clients’ experience with the program. The positive experience from the clients perspective combined with ease, emotion, and effectiveness are used to measure the program (McQueen, Mittman & Demakis 2004).
How many people were reached by the program or policy selected?
VHA program provides resources and services for any retired members of the US armed force, their family members, or care givers. The program has expanded to include veterans that might be homeless, returning service members, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Veterans, women veterans (Matthieu et al. 2020). Besides, the program has managed to reach non-veterans and their caregivers, spouses, and close family members.
How much of an impact was realized with the program or policy selected?
The program has managed to serve 9 million servicemen and women each year besides having research initiatives that benefit the society as a whole (Matthieu et al. 2020).
At what point in program implementation was the program or policy evaluation conducted?
VHA is regularly examined to determine its effectiveness. However, during its implementation, it was initially evaluated in the year 1988 by Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI). The specific point in program evaluation that the program was evaluated is during the completion stage whereby evaluation was done to examine the immediate outcomes and long term effect of the program’s performance (McQueen, Mittman & Demakis 2004).
What data was used to conduct the program or policy evaluation?
The data that was used to conduct the program evaluation was drawn from inpatient population, outpatient, healthcare settings and healthcare providers (Matthieu et al. 2020).
What specific information on unintended consequences was identified?
The program failed in delivering quality care to veterans during its initial implementation stages. However, after health reforms, the program managed to deliver quality care to veterans in the U.S (Matthieu et al. 2020).
What stakeholders were identified in the evaluation of the program or policy? Who would benefit most from the results and reporting of the program or policy evaluation? Be specific and provide examples.
During the evaluation of the program, the identified stakeholders comprised of active-duty and reserve military officers, military veterans, healthcare providers, the government, the healthcare department in the United States; medical centers and outpatient clinics, institute for health improvement (IHI) and national health care consulting company. Active-duty and reserve military officers and military veterans are the stakeholders who benefit most from the results and reporting of the program evaluation since the improvement in this program has a direct effect on their health and general welfare (Matthieu et al. 2020).
Did the program or policy meet the original intent and objectives? Why or why not?
Even though VHA faced several challenges during its implementation, it finally managed to meet its objectives. It improved process quality and performance. Some studies have confirmed that its overall performance is way higher compared to the entire U.S healthcare system (McQueen, Mittman & Demakis 2004).
Would you recommend implementing this program or policy in your place of work? Why or why not?
VHA has turned out to be a significant tool in catering for the health of veterans in myriad ways. As a result, I would recommend implementing the program.
Identify at least two ways that you, as a nurse advocate, could become involved in evaluating a program or policy after 1 year of implementation.
Some of the key areas that a nurse advocate can be involved in evaluating a program after implementation comprise of comparing the change inflicted by the program after 1 year of implementation. Also, a nurse advocate can record the degree of success of a program in relation to how it has accomplished its objectives.
References
Matthieu, M. M., Ounpraseuth, S. T., Painter, J., Waliski, A., Hu, B., Smith, R., & Garner, K. K. (2020). Evaluation of the national implementation of the VA Diffusion of Excellence Initiative on Advance Care Planning via Group Visits: protocol for a quality improvement evaluation. Implementation Science Communications, 1(1), 1-10.
McQueen, L., Mittman, B. S., & Demakis, J. G. (2004). Overview of the veterans health administration (VHA) quality enhancement research initiative (QUERI). Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 11(5), 339-343.
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