Appointment wait times for surgical care in the Veterans Health Administration and Community Care Program.
Journal
Surgery
ISSN: 1532-7361
Titre abrégé: Surgery
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 0417347
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Dec 2023
Dec 2023
Historique:
received:
28
03
2023
revised:
15
08
2023
accepted:
17
08
2023
medline:
27
11
2023
pubmed:
24
9
2023
entrez:
23
9
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The Veterans Health Administration has been criticized for long wait times; however, studies indicate that Veterans Health Administration wait times are shorter than those for the Veterans Health Administration's Community Care Program. Previous studies have analyzed primary care wait times, but few have compared surgical specialties. Using a publicly available data set of veteran appointments compiled from the Veterans Health Administration's Corporate Data Warehouse, a nationally representative database containing 623,868 surgical consults from January 1 to June 30, 2021, mean differences in wait times between the Veterans Health Administration and the Community Care Program were calculated across surgical specialties. In total, 49.6% of the surgical consults placed during the study period were for the Community Care Program. Across all surgical specialties, wait times were shorter in the Veterans Health Administration. Cardiothoracic surgery had the shortest mean wait times (23.1 days Veterans Health Administration; 30.0 days Community Care Program). The greatest difference in wait times was observed in plastic surgery, with Community Care Program appointments occurring 15.8 days later than Veterans Health Administration appointments on average. Across all surgical specialties, the Veterans Health Administration had shorter wait times than the Community Care Program during the study period.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
The Veterans Health Administration has been criticized for long wait times; however, studies indicate that Veterans Health Administration wait times are shorter than those for the Veterans Health Administration's Community Care Program. Previous studies have analyzed primary care wait times, but few have compared surgical specialties.
METHODS
METHODS
Using a publicly available data set of veteran appointments compiled from the Veterans Health Administration's Corporate Data Warehouse, a nationally representative database containing 623,868 surgical consults from January 1 to June 30, 2021, mean differences in wait times between the Veterans Health Administration and the Community Care Program were calculated across surgical specialties.
RESULTS
RESULTS
In total, 49.6% of the surgical consults placed during the study period were for the Community Care Program. Across all surgical specialties, wait times were shorter in the Veterans Health Administration. Cardiothoracic surgery had the shortest mean wait times (23.1 days Veterans Health Administration; 30.0 days Community Care Program). The greatest difference in wait times was observed in plastic surgery, with Community Care Program appointments occurring 15.8 days later than Veterans Health Administration appointments on average.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSIONS
Across all surgical specialties, the Veterans Health Administration had shorter wait times than the Community Care Program during the study period.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37741781
pii: S0039-6060(23)00519-6
doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2023.08.017
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1371-1375Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.